A GREY 'YING' ROCK MING / QING DYNASTY

exquisitely wrought out to stand vertically, the dark grey 'Ying' limestone pitted with a craggy surface, carved with an inscription reading Yiyun cang shi, hongmu stand; together with two ink on paper paintings by Liu Dan (b. 1953) of two views of the rock

LIU DAN b. 1953
Pinnacle of Leisurely Clouds
ink on paper, framed
executed in 2004
inscribed and each marked with one seal of the artist

Tao-The Jiansongge Collection.
Sotheby's Hong Kong, 11th April 2008, lot 2702.
Acquired from above by the present owner.

Special Exhibit on Viewing Scholar's Rocks and Appreciating Famous Paintings, Xiling Seal Engravers' Society, Hangzhou, 2005, p. 19.

Pinnacle of Leisurely Clouds is composed of a grey 'ying' rock and base accompanied with two paintings by the contemporary artist Liu Dan (b. 1953). This 'ying' rock is a wonderful example of the fine-grain limestone, usually dark grey in colour, that is prized for its textured 'dimpled' surfaces. The present rock is inscribed by Sheng Dashi (1711-1836), zi zilu, hao yi yun. A native of Zhengyang, (present day Taicang) in Jiangsu province, he was a scholar, philosopher, and official at the Ministry of Education. He excelled in painting and poetry, and he is recognized for his grand, sweeping landscapes. Formerly in the Jiansongge Collection, named after the hall name of the East Asian connoisseur and dealer who has been collecting scholarly works of art for several decades, the two paintings were commissioned under the discerning eye of its founder. 

A connoisseur of scholar rocks himself, Liu Dan provides a captivating portrait of the stone's unusual nature.  Considered ugly and strange, the rock transformed by Liu Dan's painting resonates with a visceral beauty. His finely textured brush strokes and variation in ink tonalities capture the life-like dimensions of the stone's personality.  The painting of scholar rocks extends back to the Tang dynasty (618-907) when the Chinese literati celebrated the strange and abstract nature of the large garden stones. In the Song dynasty, the painting of rocks depicted in monumental landscape paintings offered a microcosm of the universe. 

For Liu Dan, painting is a means of expressing this relationship. "All the elements in my paintings are a key for viewers to open their minds. [I want] them to find their own mental and spiritual stage [on which] to create their own world in which the painting lives." In discussing choice for the ink medium he continues, "I don't control the materials, I negotiate with them."  He paints, almost obsessively, with a balance of confidence and humility. His relationship with the medium is no different from his choice of subject matter. In discussing his painted views of scholar rocks, he describes them as if they are portraits of living things, and not an inanimate object. "I look at the rock as the stem cell for the beginning of every form."¹ The rock is an organic element in the structure of landscape paintings and in every connection thereafter. (See lot 2815 for further discussion of Liu Dan's art). 

¹ Excerpts from an interview with Liu Dan by Ian Findlay-Brown, Beijing, October 2014. "Painting Beyond Surface", Asian Art News, vol. 24, no. 6, November/December 2014, p. 52.