Art of the Natural World
Found objects that were mounted on a base, placed on the desks of aristocratic philosophers and artists, and used as objects of meditation and concentration, Chinese scholars' rocks epitomized for their users the natural world in its concentrated force. Richard Rosenblum, who died of cancer last year, was a Boston sculptor and leading collector of this art naturel. His Art of the Natural World: Resonances of Wild Nature in Chinese Sculptural Art, edited by Valerie C. Doran, consists of the collector's own musings about the importance of these works, both intrinsically and to his own work as a sculptor. For example, he finds inspiration in the modern French mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot's theory of fractals, which finds symmetry in the irregular forms of nature. 100 color illus.Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.