A Stainless Steel Scholar Rock

This is a modern take on the thousand-year-old art of Chinese scholar rocks. It's a stainless steel version done in an edition of eight by the artist Zhan Wang (born Beijing, 1962). This particular rock was purchased for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's permanent collection last year, and is displayed in the same galleries as a number of "real" scholar rocks from the celebrated Richard Rosenblum Collection.

Traditional rocks, called Gongshi, have been appreciated by Chinese intellectuals since the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD). They are simply rocks, collected for their novel shapes, and displayed on stands (usually carved of wood) as objects for contemplation.

Also pictured, another rock by Wang from the Red Mansion Foundation gallery.

For an amazing collection of scholar rocks that are actually on sale, visit the sale section of Boston gallerist Kemin Hu's very informative website www.spirit-stones.com. She also has books.

In Minneapolis, visit the Sun Gallery at 4760 Grand Ave S. (612-822-6388).

And see my previous posts here and here.