Image: The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
‘Petromania: Obsessing About Stones in Asia and America’ opens Jan. 31, 2027. The exhibition will remain on view through March 27, 2028, in the Studio for Lodging the Mind, a gallery within The Huntington’s Chinese Garden.
‘Petromania’ traces more than a millennium of stone appreciation, exploring how traditions developed in China and were adapted in Japan and the United States. For centuries, people across cultures have collected, studied, and admired stones for their unusual forms, textures, and associations with the natural world.
The exhibition features viewing stones alongside paintings, rare books, and other works, showing how rocks have inspired poetry, art, philosophy, and contemplation. Its three sections are ‘China: Scholars’ Stones,’ ‘Japan: Suiseki,’ and ‘America: Viewing Stones,’ examining how distinct cultures and communities have collected, displayed, and interpreted stones over time.
Among the works is ‘Red Cliff,’ whose storage box is made of ink-decorated paulownia wood. A California example, ‘Mountain stone,’ was collected by Shiro Iwahashi and dates to the 1950s–1960s.
By bringing together viewing stones, paintings, rare books, and the living landscapes of The Huntington’s Chinese and Japanese gardens, ‘Petromania’ presents these traditions through connections among art, nature, and imagination, while showing how they continue to evolve today.
