Chinese Scholars’ Rocks - An Inspiration Over the Ages to Poets, Artists and Collectors

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Date: Wednesday, March 16th, 2022
Time: 10:30am MDT
Duration: 60 minutes via ZOOM

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The presentation looks at collecting over the ages and how it has evolved. Scholar's stones (gongshi) are known from the time of the Tang dynasty (618-906 CE). Fantastically shaped garden stones evoked the grandeur of mountains and other images from nature. Scholars developed aesthetic principles to appreciate the beauty of stones, for example, for their thinness and narrow base, interesting perforations, and crisp silhouette. As features of gardens and later indoors, they became highly desirable items to collect, and objects to spark conversation or inspiration in poetry and paintings. The talk includes classical and modern examples, available to collectors today, including traditional Taihu, Lingbi and Ying varieties. Highlights of two important private collections will be shown, one in the Boston area and a second near Taipei. Finally, the presentation illustrates how contemporary Chinese and international artists continue to draw inspiration from scholar's stones in a variety of materials.

 

AUTHOR
Yves

Ian C. Ferguson

M.A. in Art History, 2014, Carleton University

Ian C. Ferguson is an independent scholar and curator who earned an M.A. in Art History at Carleton University in 2014. He had previously served in the Canadian diplomatic service. This would be his second talk to the Institute where he has lectured in the past on Shanghai Art Deco. His teacher about scholar's stones has been Ms. Kemin Hu, a known authority and author, based in the U.S. Mr. Ferguson has published articles on a variety of art historical subjects in the the Journal of Canadian Art History and the National Gallery of Canada online magazine. He also serves as a docent at the National Gallery of Canada.