LOS ANGELES, CA.- The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is presenting Wu Bin’s Ten Views of a Lingbi Stone, featuring one of the most extraordinary paintings of a stone ever created. In ancient China, strange and marvelous stones were valued for their beauty and as reflections of the hidden structures underlying the universe. Stones were seen as fluid and dynamic, constantly changing, and capable of magical transformations. Wu Bin’s Ming dynasty handscroll, painted in 1610, comprises 10 separate views of a single stone from the famous site of Lingbi, Anhui Province. Each view is rendered with exceedingly complex brushwork as fine lines twist, waver, and unravel, describing the shifting shapes of the stone’s peaks, vales, crevices, and caverns. These lines combine with subtle washes of ink to convey the sense that one is looking not at stone, but at pure energy. 

LACMA’s presentation marks the first time that all 10 sections of this rare handscroll painting are being displayed in an American museum. The exhibition features several superb examples of actual Chinese stones and contemporary Chinese ink paintings depicting stones; and explores the history of collecting strange stones in China and the relationship between stones, Daoist cosmology, and classical Chinese poetry. Wu Bin is organized by Stephen Little, the Florence and Harry Sloan Curator of Chinese Art and Head of Chinese and Korean, and South and Southeast Asian Art at LACMA. 

“This exhibition is an exciting opportunity to examine the 2,000-year practice of collecting strange stones (guai shi) in China,” says Little. “It will be the first exhibition of its kind in Los Angeles to explore the significance of stones in China and their centrality in Chinese culture.” 

Highlights

Wu Bin (China, Fujian Province, Putian, c. 1543–c. 1626), Ten Views of a Lingbi Stone, China, Ming dynasty, Wanli reign, 1610. Handscroll, ink on paper
. Private collection © Ornan Rotam, courtesy Slyph Editions

This handscroll comprises ten perspectives of a single spirit stone from Lingbi in Anhui Province. Each view is rendered with exceedingly complex brushwork: fine lines twist, waver, and unravel, describing the shifting shapes of the stone’s peaks, vales, crevices, and caverns. These lines combine with subtle washes of ink to convey the sense that one is looking not at stone, but at pure energy. Each of Wu Bin’s paintings is accompanied by a description of the view written by the stone’s original owner, calligrapher Mi Wanzhong (1570–1628). 

Unknown, Taihu Stone, circa 1987, Limestone, a) Stone: 25 3/16 × 37 in. (64 × 94 cm), b) Floor stand: 35 7/16 × 22 7/16 × 19 11/16 in. (90 × 57 × 50 cm), Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Gift of the 2017 Collectors Committee (M.2017.73a-b), photo © Museum Associates/LACMA. 

Taihu Stone, China, Jiangsu Province, Limestone, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, gift of the 2017 Collectors Committee 
In China, spirit stones have been revered since remote antiquity, when they may have been given as tribute gifts to Emperor Yu, a quasi-mythical sage-ruler. Collectors would pay as much for these stones as they would for a painting, or even a house or estate. Taihu stones are among the most famous stones collected in China. Composed of off-white limestone, they are dredged up from the depths of Lake Tai in Jiangsu Province, in eastern China. 

Mo Stone, China, Guangxi Province, Liuzhou Limestone.
 Intended bequest of Hugh Scogin, Jr. 

Zhan Wang (China, Beijing, b. 1962) Artificial Rock No. 135, 2007. Stainless steel
, Howard and Roberta Ahmanson Collection.

Fascinated by Taihu stones, artist and professor Zhan Wang created this work as part of his series Artificial Rock. He used stainless steel to mold around the surface of a stone, then removed the sheets, welded them together, and burnished the surface until the seams disappeared. The hollow form expresses the complex relationship between nature and the urban environment, and between traditional Chinese art practices and contemporary industrial manufacturing.  

Leung Kui-ting (Chinese, born 1945), Zan Zak Zen - 18 , 2007, ink on silk, 97 x 135 cm. (38.2 x 53.1 in.).

Leung Kui-ting (China, Guangdong Province, Guangzhou, b. 1945), Zan Zak Zen, 2007. Ink on silk. Promised gift of Gérard and Dora Cognié 
As a major artist of Hong Kong’s New Ink Painting movement, Leung Kui-ting was greatly influenced by his teacher, Lui Shou-kwan (1919–1975). Leung’s works synthesize classical ink painting with modern art, exploring new norms and forms but retaining traditional principles. This painting is part of the series Zan Zak Zen, in which Leung portrays fantastically shaped Chinese scholar’s stones. Although a solid object, the rock in this painting is presented as a fluid form full of energy (qi).  

Yau Wing-fung (China, Hong Kong, b. 1990), Clouds Enveloping Strange Peaks, 2014 Ink on paper Promised gift of Gérard and Dora Cognié 
This work embodies the traditional Chinese landscape-painting concept of “three distances” promoted by the Song dynasty painter Guo Xi (c. 1020–1090): horizontal, high, and deep distance. Surrounded by clouds and mist, the rock in this painting appears more like a mountain peak. It is also characterized by “strangeness” (guai), a quality widely appreciated by Chinese literati. Yau Wing-fung is an emerging artist who mostly paints classical Chinese subjects using traditional materials.  

Zeng Xiaojun (China, Beijing, b. 1954) Untitled, 2012 Ink and color on paper Promised gift of Gérard and Dora Cognié 
Trained in both Western draftsmanship and classical Chinese painting, Zeng Xiaojun is best known for using traditional Chinese materials to depict old trees, stones, and landscapes. In this work, the stone seems relatively small compared with the large sheet of paper, yet it is meticulously detailed with dots, lines, and ink washes that capture its dynamic surface. As an avid collector of stones and other scholar’s objects, Zeng believes that collecting is about discovering beauty, while painting is about creating beauty. 

Wood Sculpture of a Taihu Stone, China, Qing dynasty, Kangxi reign (1662–1722). Wood, Robert H. Blumenfield Collection 
Chinese artists have long replicated the forms of stones in other materials, particularly wood, bronze, and porcelain. This magnificent example is a rendering in wood of a Taihu stone.  

Wood Sculpture of a Stone, China, Qing dynasty, 18th century, Zitan (purple sandalwood) with huangyang mu (boxwood) base, Robert H. Blumenfield Collection 
One of the rarest and most beautiful hardwoods in China is known as zitan; here it has been used to render the image of a stone.  

Spirit Stone: Auspicious Cloud China, Qing dynasty, with inscription dated 1744. Limestone, Yuan Mi Ge (The Pavilion of Deep Mystery) Collection 
In 1744, during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor, this stone was inscribed on its lower surface with a poetic couplet composed by the Six Dynasties–period poet Yu Xin (513–581):  

Winds give birth to stone grottoes, Clouds arise from the foot of mountains.  

Sun Wentao (China, Heilongjiang Province, Harbin, b. 1975, active Beijing), Scholar’s Stone, 2009. Mo (foam). Intended bequest of Hugh T. Scogin, Jr.