Hilbert Museum: Stone and Scene

In Asia, the practice of deep meditation focusing on a “viewing stone” or “scholar’s stone” stretches back for centuries. This fascinating exhibition pairs, for the first time, a diverse collection of viewing stones (on loan from collectors throughout Southern California) with paintings selected from The Hilbert Collection.

Some of the arrangements in the gallery acknowledge the shared similarities of paintings and stones. Others pose questions about the reasons for their juxtaposition.

The paintings reflect the stones – and vice versa – in many ways, says curator Richard Turner, noted artist and emeritus faculty member of Chapman University’s art department. “You’ll see similarities in form, composition and color,” he says. “Some stones resemble the mountain ranges depicted in a painting’s California landscape; others might call to mind a desert scene or tumbled rocks on a Pacific shore. Some even resemble living creatures like frogs or lizards.”

This is the first exhibition that has ever paired viewing stones with paintings from a museum’s collection, according to Turner.