China Unknown
Unknown: Scholar's Rock

n.d.
live rock
4.5 in.
2015.130
Gift of Stephen and Sophie Mathonnet-VanderWell

We do not have any way of identifying the date when this object began being used as a scholar’s rock. The visual flow of this rock is up and down and the crevices that are common for such rocks have this same vertical quality. It is a Lingbi stone from Lingbi, Anhui province, which is notable for the black and grey rocks with many crevices and external features. It would have been used as decoration and also as an object of meditation and reflection, as the owner could gaze upon its many features and enjoy the solid black and grey features of this rock. The rock itself is quite heavy for its size and was almost certainly not moved very often once it was laid in one position or another.

Tim Schoch
Carleton College
A Scholar’s Studio Exhibition
October 28 – December 18, 2016
Groot Gallery, Flaten Art Museum
Professor Kathleen Ryor
The students involved in curating this show come from two classes – Carleton Professor Kathleen Ryor’s Arts of China and St. Olaf Professor Karil Kucera’s Visual Culture in Modern China