Exhibition Content

• 01. Golden Age

  The Golden Age connotes a period of primordial purity, abundance, justice, and happiness and celebrates cultural enrichment in mankind.

• 02. Messenger

  In Nicolas Poussin’s paintings, a muse of the messenger is visible as the mediator between Gods and humankind, offering an opportunity for the shepherds to contemplate their heavenly Arcadia in earnest. The works in this section examine utopian wishes and idealogy.

• 03. Arcadia 

  The term, Arcadia, is derived from the Greek province with mountainous topography. Despite its geological characteristics, Arcadia was often described as a land of blessing and prosperity, and Poussin reinterpreted the land in his paintings. Modern artists regarded the south France province as their own Arcadia and painted peaceful landscapes based on their perceptions for Arcadia. 

• 04. Retrieved Arcadia

  The term, Retrieved Arcadia, was coined to denote the reconciliation of Arcadia from modern and traditional myths. The paintings from the 1960s often focus on the pursuit of self and seeking the origin of nature, ultimately leading to the reminisce of Arcadia.

• 05. Abundance 

  Poussin’s The Arcadian Shepherds highlights the abundance of Arcadia. After Paul Cezanne, modern artists continued to study the subject of still life with a variety of fruits and food on plates, implying different aspects of affluence that Arcadia can offer.

• 06. Vanity

  Poussin’s The Arcadian Shepherds includes the message of Memento Mori that death is inevitable whatsoever, even in Arcadia. Jewelry with skulls or coffins were the popular and conventional motifs that allude to memento mori signifying the impermanence of human life and contemplation.

• 07. Pleasure

  While Arcadia was the utopian land, it was also escapism for men to express their natural instincts and desires that were suppressed in reality. The subject of female figures played a similar function for modern artists as to revealing their perception of utopia. 

• 08. Harmony

  Arcadia becomes perfect when everything is aligned in harmony. For modern artists, Arcadia was the ideal and inspiring space where their unrealistic dreams come true.

• 09. The Night

  We appreciate the light more significantly when you are in a dark place. By embracing the darkness and images of death, artists marched towards utopian land and kept motivated for new inspiration.

• 10. Luncheon on the Grass

  Eduard Manet’s Luncheon on the Grass reinterprets the urban hedonism and the modernity of pastoral scenery and carries the classic ‘eternal immortality’ in a sensuous way.  On the threshold of modern art, Manet’s painting suggests the continuity of the ‘Golden Age,’ ultimately the Arcadian dream.