Ballerina-turned-choreographer reflects on initial reluctance to direct, greater lesson behind fairy-tale classic

GHENT, Belgium (AFP) -- A painstaking restoration of a 15th-century Flemish masterpiece is revealing the long-lost detail and splendor that helped make the altarpiece one of the world’s most stolen artworks.“The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb” by the Van Eyck brothers was unveiled600 years ago at Saint Bavo’s Cathedral in Ghent, but since then its full glory has dimmed, after being split into pieces, seized by Napoleon, then the Nazis, and nabbed by thieves.“You could say it is like the rediscover

Cosmopolitan artist Koo Jeong-a talks about her drawing project that records her traveling, exhibiting around the world

Dance French dance company Compagnie DCA performs “Contact.” (Official website)“Sleeping Beauty”: Korean National Ballet will perform “Sleeping Beauty” at the Seoul Arts Center Opera House from Nov. 3-6. After presenting Rudolf Nureyev’s rendition in 2004, the group is back with a different take of the classic fairy tale, choreographed by Marcia Haydee, a former prima ballerina of the Stuttgart Ballet group. The performance will begin at 7:30 p.m. on weekdays, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. on the Saturday a

FRANKFURT (AFP) -- British contemporary artist David Hockney unveiled a 500-page art book at the Frankfurt fair Wednesday that is so large it comes with its own stand -- and a price tag of 2,000 euros ($2,200).The tome, “A Bigger Book,” gives a visual overview of his decades-long career and includes everything from his earliest drawings to his famed swimming pool paintings and polaroid collages, to his more recent iPad drawings.The 79-year-old, wearing a white flat cap and a yellow tie with a gr

CHICAGO (AFP) -- Yoko Ono, whose last recorded song with John Lennon was inspired by Chicago, unveiled here Tuesday the final piece of her first permanent US art installation. The sculpture, which is on display at The Art Institute, is entitled “Mended Petal.” It is a tall representation of a stainless steel lotus blossom petal. A group of 12 similar petals, comprising a separate sculpture entitled “Skylanding,” was unveiled Monday in Jackson Park, an expansive urban setting on Chicago’s South S

Having ovecome insecurity over her age, Ferri ready to dance with Romeo 20 years her junior

FLORENCE, Italy (AFP) -- Two of the most famous works of Sandro Botticelli, “Spring” and the “Birth of Venus,” were unveiled in a new setting Monday, following extensive renovation work at Florence’s Uffizi Gallery.Rooms nine and 15, two of the most visited in a celebrated museum that pulls in 2 million guests per year, have been closed for enlargement and modernization since July 2015.As well as the Botticelli masterpieces, the rooms are also home to major works by Pollaiolo, Hugo van der Goes

Christie’s auction house in New York will offer for sale one of Claude Monet’s celebrated “haystack” paintings, valued at an estimated $45 million, which should reconfirm collectors’ appetite for Impressionist art.With wealthy Chinese collectors expressing keen interest in such works, the painting -- part of a series of haystack pictures painted by Monet during the winter of 1890-1891 from his French home in Giverny -- will first be presented next week in Hong Kong. It will then be shown in Lond

Dance“Tropical”: Dance Theater Tic will be presenting the group’s 2016 piece “Tropical” at Guerilla Theatre in Hyehwa-dong, Seoul from Oct. 21-23. Chronicling the story of six men stuck in the tropics after the Earth’s axis mysteriously shifts, the performance conveys the contradicting forces of life and death, and hope and desperation. “Tropical” will begin at 8 p.m. on the Friday and at 4 p.m. on the weekend. Tickets are from 20,000 won, and can be reserved at ticket.interpark.com. For inquiri

Kicking off its 2016-2017 season, the Korea National Opera is gearing up to present its latest rendition of one of the operatic world’s most tragic love stories -- Giacomo Puccini’s “Tosca.” The Italian libretto will be staged from Oct. 13 to 16 at the Seoul Arts Center’s Opera Theater.In this production, the KNO has brought together world-renowned international singers and creators on one stage for a fresh, collaborative performance. Bringing to life some of the most heart-wrenching vocal melod

Seoul Metropolitan Dance Theater is gearing up to stage its latest production, “Sin-Si, The Festival of the Sun,” a ballet combining the art of traditional Korean dance.Depicting the motif of the Dangun Mythology through dance, the upcoming performance tells the 7,000-year-old tale of Hwanung, the son of heaven, who descended to Earth to guide the Ung (bear) tribe and Ho (tiger) tribe. The two tribes had long been at war, fighting against each other in an effort to establish Sin-Si -- a new city