By Deb Glasser, Patron Program Committee member

When the late Wan-go H. C. Weng donated his superb collection of Chinese paintings and calligraphy to the MFA, a collection that had been curated by his family over six generations, he understood that his transformational gift would enable the Museum to tell new and important stories. Wan-go had described the MFA as “his museum,” and it is easy to imagine that he would be pleased with the third installment of exhibitions drawn from his family’s collection that’s on view now until May 3, 2023: “Art Rocks.

The inspiration for this exhibition centers on the discovery in the 1850s by Wan-go’s great great great grandfather of an 11th-century inscription on a rock found within a famed garden. The inscription, from one of China’s most revered calligraphers and poets, Mi Fu (1051–1107), had been lost, obscured by centuries of overgrowth in the garden. Once revealed by Wen-go’s ancestor, the discovery was celebrated in three commissioned paintings, and it is these that form the center and intellectual linchpin for the current exhibition.

Collecting rocks emerged in 10th-century China as a new art historical concept that placed the appreciation of pure nature on par with painting and calligraphy. This movement elevated found objects, deeming verisimilitude and color as too easy in the making of art. As they collect found objects, large ones for outside the home and smaller ones for an interior, petraphiles pursue connoisseurship around the pure appreciation of form. According to Nancy Berliner, a self-described petraphile, pretty is not prized and awkward is a compliment. One leaves “Art Rocks” hard pressed not to make an art historical connection from these revolutionary ideas of nearly a millennium ago to the art movements that would reverberate in the 20th century as European and American avant-garde artists sought to renew their modes of expression.

Among the beautiful works celebrating rocks is one of Wan-go’s favorites, a gift to him from the Chinese artist Chiang Yee. In an interesting and appropriate twist, Chiang Yee found this specimen during his travels in the US. According to curator Nancy Berliner, it is not a Chinese rock, but it is a Chinese rock, speaking to the Chinese aesthetic and appreciation of form. As with many current MFA exhibitions, “Art Rocks” is enhanced by a stunning design that features a wall and moon gate to evoke the exterior and interior spaces where rocks could be contemplated and appreciated. MFA Patrons will be familiar with the large outdoor limestone scholar’s rock that stands sentinel on the Huntington Avenue lawn. After visiting “Art Rocks,” you will surely view it with new eyes.