RSVP to jpnliven@gmail.com

For thousands of years, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese collectors have sought out stones sculpted by nature that possess two highly prized qualities: beauty and a suggestive shape, such as a mountain, island, plateau, cove, or cliff. Dr. Vincent Covello’s presentation will consider how rocks, as suggestive objects, play a role in people's aesthetic, emotional, and intellectual lives. He will discuss how suggestive rocks (called suiseki in Japan), as well as tray landscapes (bon-seki or pen-jing) and landscape gardens, all flow from similar impulses. Dr. Covello is co-author of "The Japanese Art of Stone Appreciation: Suiseki and its Use with Bonsai." He has lectured on Asian art and on the aesthetics of rocks. He has also authored articles on the aesthetics of rocks, including the article "Suiseki and the Aesthetic Pursuit of Wabi, Sabi, Shibui, and Yugen" (Arts of Asia, 25:1, pp. 94-100).