“World of Flowers” Modern and Contemporary Art Collection Flagship Permanent Collection Exhibition “Nothing Still About Still Lifes: Masterpieces from the World of Flowers Collection”

As Deji Art Museum’s flagship permanent collection exhibition, “Nothing Still About Still Lifes: Masterpieces from the World of Flowers Collection” showcases pivotal works from the museum’s World of Flowers Modern and Contemporary Art Collection. Focusing on floral-themed masterpieces from China and abroad, spanning Impressionism to today, the World of Flowers collection builds on over a decade of research and acquisitions by Deji Art Museum to advance a leading, research-driven collection dedicated to floral-themed art. Adopting a cross-cultural and interdisciplinary perspective, the museum re-examines this theme, emphasizing the unique significance of flowers in the development of art history and revealing how they serve as a medium of exchange that transcends time, space, and cultural boundaries, illuminating broader historical and cultural exchanges.

The exhibition’s four chapters—“Cross-Pollination,” “Avant-Gardening,” “Meta-Flowers” and “Breakout Blooms”—each explores a new dimension of the dialectical relationship between “stillness” and “movement” in floral-themed art. Within the dimension of time and space, the global circulation of flower varieties over centuries is accompanied by the cross-cultural exchange of art; in the dimension of species, changes in the relationship between human beings and flower cultivation go hand in hand with artistic creation; in the symbolic dimension, flowers in art embody meanings and emotions that transcend mere representation; finally, in the dimension of transformation, floral-themed art remains a vital arena for artists to test technique and pursue unending renewal.

The exhibition brings together 140 floral-themed masterpieces by 109 artists from worldwide, spanning Impressionism to today. It features renowned modern masters such as Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edouard Manet, Paul Cézanne, Edvard Munch, Pablo Picasso, and Henri Matisse; major figures in contemporary art like Andy Warhol, Yayoi Kusama, David Hockney, Anselm Kiefer, Jeff Koons, and Yoshitomo Nara; and pioneering Chinese artists across generations such as Sanyu, Pan Yuliang, Wu Dayu, Wu Guanzhong, Zao Wou-Ki, Chu Teh-Chun, Chen Yifei, and Zhang Xiaogang. Encompassing nearly fifty major movements and groups—including Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Cubism, Fauvism, Expressionism, Dadaism, Surrealism, Abstract Art, Pop Art, and Conceptual Art—the exhibition traces the evolution and integration of artistic styles and trends, culminating in a grand symphony of art spanning more than a century.

The exhibition introduces a pioneering “story-chain” narrative, with pairs and trios of adjacent works structured to build coherent stories. Centered on the theme of transformation, it reveals how each work marks turning points within artistic movements and mirrors broader shifts in politics, economics, technology, and culture. The exhibition also highlights the remarkable creativity of women artists and their long-overlooked contributions to art history, while the interactive Art–Botany Encyclopedia invites audiences to explore the botanical knowledge behind the works, linking art and science.

Curated by guest curator Dr. Joachim Pissarro, the exhibition has attracted critical acclaim from both domestic and international art communities since its opening in August 2023, and has been hailed by the media as “the most influential floral-themed art exhibition in the past three decades.” In October 2025, building upon the framework established by Dr. Pissarro, the museum team renewed and expanded the exhibition, incorporating two years of new acquisitions and research findings.

“Nothing Still About Still Lifes” is an exhibition that grows and evolves alongside the World of Flowers Modern and Contemporary Art Collection. We hope that audiences will not only appreciate masterpieces of art history here but also experience how art transcends time and space to engage in profound dialogue with contemporary life—thus making art a way of life, a cultural force that embodies the power “to connect, inspire, create, and transform.”