Y-shaped Rock with One Perforation, Ming dynasty, 14th-15th century Diagonally-Oriented Rock with Cave Ming dynasty, (1368-1644) Rock in the Form of a Mountain with a Grotto 16th-early 17th century Rock in the Form of a Reclining Figure date uncertain Tall Rock in the Form of an Old Man, Ming dynasty (1368-1644)

chinese scholars' rocks simultaneously original and simulacrum by John Mendelsohn The literati of China, who began collecting the geological wonders known as "scholars' rocks" over 1,000 years ago, developed an esthetic of the found object which regarded nature as an artist whose work was an extended self-portrait in miniature. Nature made art in its own image, an eccentrically evocative fractal of itself. Bringing this art to light required the connoisseurship of human recognition and, at times, human collaboration in the form of sculptural interventions so subtle they are often indistinguishable from the rock's natural configurations. In an act of Song Dynasty postmodernism, these assisted ready-mades became both original and simulacrum, simultaneously. In "Worlds Within Worlds: The Richard Rosenblum Collection of Chinese Scholars' Rocks," the Asia Society presents more than 70 examples of this art assembled by an American sculptor over the past 25 years. It is a strangely provocative exhibition, full of beautiful and sometimes haunting objects that make us question where we are standing when we look at nature and see art. The rocks, which were meant for the tabletop contemplation of the universe, range from a few inches to many feet high. They sit on wooden stands, carved with motifs of clouds, animals and vegetation, that are stylized "culture" contrasted to the "nature" of the rocks. The rocks themselves often resemble mountain landscapes, islands, caves or figures-- nature writ small and following the precepts of Chinese landscape painting. The outstanding example in this mode is the Honorable Old Man (16th-17th century), standing nearly six feet high and just nine inches wide. Craggy and rough as a tree branch, it resembles a Giacometti figure, the stripped down image of a Chinese sage. Its inscription was effaced and its pedestal removed in the 1960s to disguise it as a mere rock, and thus save it from the iconoclasts of the Cultural Revolution. Scholars' rocks were equally appreciated for their inherent physical and visual qualities. It is here that Western notions of abstraction overlap with the canon of formal elements that rock collectors prized. And indeed many of the rocks have the kind of "power" and "integrity" to which abstract sculpture has aspired. But it is just this proximity that makes the distance to the Chinese scholars' esthetic all more the telling. The rocks were chosen for awkwardness (overhanging asymmetry), resonance (rings when struck), representation (resemblance to landscape or figure), wrinkling (heavy or subtle texture) and moistness (glossy and tactile surface). Perhaps the outstanding example to a European modernist sensibility are the Taihu rocks. Often cream-colored, the mass of these stones is equaled by the many penetrations that honeycomb them. These holes are of a variety of sizes, made both by nature and by the stones' collectors. Of course, one cannot tell where one left off and the other began. The result is a fantastic, twisting, bone-like form, shot through with emptiness, full of multiple perspectives and "worlds within worlds." "Worlds within Worlds: The Richard Rosenblum Collection of Chinese Scholars' Rocks, " Asia Society Galleries, New York, Mar. 28 - Aug. 18, 1996. John Mendelsohn is a New York artist who occasionally writes on art.