September 11 (Sat), 2021 – March 30 (Wed), 2022

Exhibition room 5

Since ancient times, artists have depicted scenes related to water, which is a source of life and a powerful force of nature. When Claude Monet presented his Water Lilies series, he used the word “waterscapes” in the title of his solo exhibition. In addition to aptly describing the series, in which almost all of the works are dominated by the water’s surface, “waterscapes” are closely connected to Monet himself, an artist who continually painted scenes of water, including the Seine and his pond in Giverny, throughout his life.

Their works took a diverse range of expressions from close observations of waterscapes near a sea, river, or lake, and depictions of mystical landscapes, which were not actually real but inspired by the endlessly changing scenes, to studies of stories dealing with water.

In this exhibition, we introduce works related to water that were specially selected from the Pola Museum of Art Collection, including Western paintings, Japanese Western-style paintings, Japanese-style paintings and Glass works.

Monet was not the only artist who was attracted to water as a motif. The aspect of water as a fluid entity, which never maintains a single shape and assumes a variety of different expressions while reflecting natural light, served as a source of inspiration for many artists all over the world.