Inkstone “Moon and Cloud”
Zhu Dai Chinese
Not on view
Inkstones are one of the “four treasures of the scholar’s studio” along with ink, brush, and paper. The subtle dark color and fine texture of this piece identify it as a top quality stone from She prefecture (Anhui Province), one of the four most famous sources for inkstones in China. Renowned since the Song dynasty (960–1279), this fine-grained form of slate is ideal for grinding cakes of ink with water. To preserve as much of this precious stone as possible, the artist has left the slab largely intact, carving out only a small moon-shaped well for the liquid ink. The artist also took advantage of the natural banding in the stone to suggest a line of clouds crossing the “moon.” The work combines the traditional literati aesthetic for unadorned simplicity with a modern embrace of minimalism.
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