Nature’s Readymades presents an extraordinary selection of Gongshi (scholars’ rocks or viewing stones) drawn from the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum in Washington, D.C. Carved by nature and relished by Chinese literati as early as the Tang dynasty (7th c.), these paradoxical objects are worlds in miniature, presenting the vital energy of the universe in a hardened, static form. Not sculpted in the conventional sense, they predate Marcel Duchamp’s readymades by more than a millennium, and in many ways pose an even greater challenge to long-held definitions of art: they are unauthored and typically undated, yet have long been understood and appreciated in artistic terms. Government officials steeped in poetry, literature, and art displayed them prominently in their studios, alongside brush and ink paintings.

In addition, the exhibition includes contributions from a range of scholars—a geologist, a novelist, an observational painter, two poets, a political scientist, a religious studies professor, and a sculptor—who each offer thoughts on a rock or stone in their personal possession. The participants include artist Ellen Altfest, who has spent the last eight months looking at and making a painting of a rock, and Ugo Rondinone, whose sculpture has been inspired, in part, by Gongshi.

“A core question the show asks is, ‘Is there art in nature?’ A related question is if there can be art without artists. Can we adopt an aesthetic attitude to objects in the world that are extra-artistic?”

Co-curated with Shelly Bancroft. Research support by Anita Therese Kent (AGI26) and Faith Chang (A25)