Director says expectations high for gallery exchange programs and curated Art HK projectsThe art industry can no longer be discussed without mentioning Hong Kong Art Fair. Also known as Art HK, the fair, inaugurated only in 2008, has rapidly grown into one of the most influential art events not just in Asia, but the world. Last year 260 galleries from 38 countries participated in the fair, introducing more than 1,000 artists. It attracted more than 63,500 visitors, a 38 percent increase from the

March 22, 2012

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) ― It was, it wasn’t, it is: A still life once thought to be by Vincent van Gogh but later downgraded to being the work of an anonymous artist is indeed by the tormented Dutch impressionist himself, researchers announced Tuesday.The process leading to the confirmation of the painting’s authenticity reads like a cold case detective story. A new X-ray technique helped experts re-examine what they already knew about “Still life with meadow flowers and roses’’ and draw on

March 21, 2012

Suh Do Ho’s airy, detailed homes showcased at Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art trigger nostalgia and aweStudying abroad in the United States was the most difficult but also most important time for Suh Do Ho. Nostalgic about what he left behind but at the same time struggling to fit in, the idea of “home” never left his mind during his stay in the United States and eventually became the major theme of his works. His torment is visualized in his installation work “Fallen Star ― 1/5th Scale.” The work

March 21, 2012

K-pop diva, classic guitarist resonate with music of Piazzolla, bizet and their ownKorean diva Insooni and classical guitarist Denis Sungho Janssens challenge both themselves and their fans by exploring a broad musical spectrum and also by breaking boundaries between pop and classical music.  With the concert entitled “My … Daehwa (Conversation),” the artists from Korea and Belgium will try to tell their own story ― despite cultural differences and language barriers ― through music. “I was overw

March 21, 2012

CHICAGO (AP) ― Famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma and soprano Renee Fleming performed Monday with a choir of Chicago high school students to promote arts education.The performance was a collaboration of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Citizen Musician initiative and the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Renee Fleming Initiative. The programs aim to spread music in the community.“An integrated arts curriculum is to me, it means that we have people who are in touch with who they are on the inside and in touch with wh

March 20, 2012

Asian music will be among the highlights of the 10th Tongyeong International Music Festival (TIMF) to be held under the theme of “without distance” from Friday through March 29 in Tongyeong, South Gyeongsang Province.The organizers of the festival said Tuesday the 10-year-old festival is now turning its eyes toward Asian music, which has received less attention in the international music scene.The Asian Composers’ Night on Saturday will feature music by Yun I-sang, one of South Korea’s great con

March 20, 2012

The Korea National Opera will celebrate its 50th anniversary this year starting with a reinterpretation of Giacomo Puccini’s masterpiece “La Boheme,” the company said on Tuesday. The country’s leading opera company will collaborate with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra led by maestro Chung Myung-hwun to stage one of Puccini’s greatest works on April 3-6 at the Seoul Arts Center’s Opera Theater.“Maestro Chung and I worked intensively on music reading when we collaborated in Verdi’s ‘Simon Boccane

March 20, 2012

 Exhibition features more than 2,300 Silla artifacts, from bones of dogs to metal toolsIn the days of Korea’s Silla Kingdom (B.C. 57―A.D. 935), people had an unusual way of wishing for good fortune and chasing away evil spirits. During their prayers for prosperity and fortune, they’d bury a number of personal items, such as roof tiles, well buckets and plates, underground or in the wells of various locations.The National Museum of Korea’s new exhibition, titled “Opening of Time Capsules: Wondrou

March 20, 2012

Gallery Hyundai presents large-scale exhibition on father of Young U.K. ArtistsA glass of water on a shelf, titled “An Oak Tree,” created a stir in the art world in 1974, placing Michael Craig-Martin, the artist, in the limelight. It became difficult to talk about British art, let alone contemporary art in general, without mentioning his name ever since. “What I have tried to do with the oak tree was to say that in the end, it is important for the viewers to believe in the work. The artist is as

March 19, 2012

NEW YORK (AP) ― If you’ve ever seen British choreographer Matthew Bourne’s version of “Swan Lake,’’ you already know that his birds aren’t the usual delicate, fluttery ballet swans.They’re muscular, menacing and very, very male ― and now they’re something else: 3-D, for one night only at a movie theater near you.When Bourne’s distinctive, testosterone-heavy flock swoops in Tuesday to some 220 theaters across the U.S., it will be only the second time a full ballet is presented in 3-D, after “Gise

March 19, 2012

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) ― Stars of all stripes and celebrity hit town to close out South By Southwest, but it was a marching band that stole the show Saturday.Members of the Austin High band watched their star turn in the premiere of filmmaker Emmett Malloy’s “Big Easy Express,’’ then joined documentary subjects Mumford & Sons, Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeroes and Old Crow Medicine Show in an outdoor concert at the University of Texas as the music conference fell into an exhausted heap on its fi

March 19, 2012