The Korea Herald

Works by unknown ‘Wireman’ in Philly art show

Nov 1, 2011

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (AP) ― Three decades after hundreds of strange wire-bound oddities were saved from the trash heap, an art gallery eight blocks from where they were dumped at a curb is featuring a selection of works made by a mystery artist now known only as the Philadelphia Wireman.“What was unique about this was the discovery, how it was found, and how many there were,” said John Ollman, an expert in self-taught art whose Fleischer/Ollman Gallery has 29 Wireman works on view through
Silver statuette is unknown Rodin: expert

Oct 31, 2011

PARIS (AFP) ― A French art expert Thursday unveiled evidence he says proves that a silver statuette of a “wounded woman” is an unknown work by Auguste Rodin, depicting his lover and disciple Camille Claudel.The unsigned statue, 22.5 centimeters tall, depicts a female figure, standing but stooped as if in pain, with a draped fabric over one arm and clenched between her thighs.“All the clues point to Rodin,” Gilles Perrault, a leading expert on the 19th-century master, told a press conference as h
Picasso takes lead in big New York art sales

Oct 31, 2011

NEW YORK (AFP) ― Christie’s and Sotheby’s hold their big autumn art sales in New York starting next week, with both houses looking to Pablo Picasso to excite a robust market.The prominence of important works by Picasso, Matisse and other modern masters in the impressionist and modern art sales at Christie’s on Tuesday and Sotheby’s on Wednesday reflects the healthy appetite this year for big-ticket works, auctioneers said.A strong market is also expected the following week when the two houses ho
Abu Dhabi museum island hit by more delays

Oct 30, 2011

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) ― Branches of the Louvre and Guggenheim art museums being built as part of an ambitious cultural district in Abu Dhabi could now open at least a year later than planned, the developer and an official with knowledge of the projects said Saturday.Questions about the future of the Saadiyat Island cultural district have swirled among contractors in the Gulf for months. They came into sharper focus this week when the project’s government-backed developer disclosed tha
Kevorkian suicide machine, paintings don’t sell

Oct 30, 2011

NEW YORK (AP) ― A suicide machine belonging to Dr. Jack Kevorkian was withdrawn Friday from an auction of the assisted-suicide advocate’s possessions after failing to draw a high enough bid, while 17 of his paintings tied up in a legal dispute with a suburban Boston museum found no takers.The paintings, including one Kevorkian did with a pint of his blood, and about 100 other personal items went on sale at the New York Institute of Technology. The estate had estimated the value of the 17 paintin
Master craftsmen inspire with fine touches

Oct 30, 2011

Sulwhasu exhibition brings together handicrafts by 11 Korean masters in various fieldsIt is impossible to make “hanji,” or Korean traditional mulberry paper, without a hanji screen. And Yu Bae-geun, who is registered as Intangible Cultural Property No. 31, is the sole person in the nation who can make one. He spends his winters in the freezing Damyang County in South Jeolla Province searching for good four to five-year-old bamboo, and other months indoors extracting the thinnest-possible bamboo
Herald artday’s first online auction sets new records

Oct 27, 2011

The first-ever online auction held by Herald artday, a subsidiary of Herald Media group, closed on Wednesday with 84 percent of items sold, the highest-ever in the history of online art auction in South Korea. “Herald artday First Online Auction” which took place for six days topped the K Auction’s April record of 82 percent sales. The total amount in sales was over 427 million won, also exceptional for an online auction. Among the articles, Lee U-fan’s 1976 piece “From Line,” which was showcas
Russia’s Bolshoi Theatre to unveil spectacular refit

Oct 27, 2011

MOSCOW (AFP) ― Russia’s historic Bolshoi Theatre will finally raise its curtain on Friday after a massive, six-year overhaul that aims to create a state-of-the-art space for its world-renowned ballet and opera troupe.Stars including prima ballerina Svetlana Zakharova and French soprano Natalie Dessay will tread the new stage at a lavish gala attended by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev as well as major arts figures.The invitation-only gala in Moscow will be broadcast on a giant screen to crowds
Islam’s treasures back on display at New York’s Met

Oct 27, 2011

NEW YORK (AFP) ― Masterworks of Islamic art will once again be on view at New York’s Metropolitan Museum, which next week reopens an exhaustive installation following an eight-year renovation.New York’s biggest and most comprehensive art museum unveils on Nov. 1 its “New Galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia.”Refurbished at a cost of some $50 million, the 15 galleries will display 1,200 breathtaking works from the Middle East and North Africa m
Exhibit examines American interest in Rembrandt

Oct 26, 2011

RALEIGH, North Carolina (AP) ― The North Carolina Museum of Art has curated an exhibit of 30 works by Rembrandt from American collectors, which is especially appropriate considering that the museum’s first director was partly responsible for authenticating many works as painted by the Dutch artist that turned out not to be actual Rembrandts.“Rembrandt in America” opens Oct. 30 at the museum, then travels next year to Cleveland and Minneapolis.The 30 paintings are from private collections and mor
Strike keeps Paris’ Orsay Museum shut

Oct 26, 2011

PARIS (AFP) ― Striking staff at Paris’ newly revamped Orsay Museum voted Tuesday to extend a protest which has kept the museum closed to thousands of would-be visitors for almost a week.Workers decided to extend their action launched last Thursday to demand 20 more people to staff the larger, renovated venue, whose world-leading impressionist collection draws three million visitors each year, the museum said.Twenty-five years after its creation in a century-old former railway station on the sout
U.S. man’s possible Michelangelo on display in Rome

Oct 25, 2011

BUFFALO, New York (AP) ― A possible 16th-century Michelangelo painting that hung for years in a local family’s home is being displayed in Rome as part of an exhibit of Renaissance art, a development its owner calls a major milestone as he works to have it accepted by the art world.Scholars disagree on whether “La Pieta With Two Angels” was painted by Michelangelo or by one of his collaborators.For now, 48-by-63-centimeter work is described as “Michelangelesque” in a show sponsored by the philant
West opens door a crack to the rise of Chinese art

Oct 25, 2011

PARIS (AFP) ― China’s new clout on the global art market, and its taste for home-grown works, is driving up the price of contemporary Chinese artists ― forcing the Western art world to make space at the table for the rising stars.Last year China became the world’s leading auction marketplace for fine art, after overtaking France, Britain and finally the United States in the space of five years, according to research by Artprice.And China’s rise as an art hub is flipping the traditionally Western
Will Ferrell wins top U.S. humor prize

Oct 24, 2011

WASHINGTON (AP) ― Will Ferrell, who refined his impersonation of President George W. Bush on the sketch comedy show “Saturday Night Live” and later took his presidential act to Broadway, was awarded the nation’s top humor prize Sunday night.The TV star went on to make movies and co-found the popular website FunnyorDie.com in a career that won the 44-year-old the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.It was the Bush impression, though, that might have
Calendar

Oct 21, 2011

Exhibitions"The Court Painters of Joseon Dynasty": In celebration of its seventh anniversary, Leeum brought together 110 paintings by “hwawon,” or court painters of the Joseon Dynasty. It showcases works by master painters like Kim Hong-do, Jang Seung-eop, Shin Yun-bok and Kim Deuk-sin, who are well