Upper class tastes and lives of commoners of Joseon seen through still and genre paintings

LONDON (AP) -- Thousands of people have stripped naked and painted themselves in four shades of blue to celebrate the English city of Hull’s relationship with the sea. Hull City Council says some 3,200 people took part in the art installation, staged by New York artist Spencer Tunick on Saturday. The work is called “Sea of Hull” and was commissioned by the Ferens Art Gallery to mark the city’s celebration next year as the U.K. City of Culture.Tunick says the resulting photos incorporate some of

Exhibitions　 Installation view of artist Gwon O-sang’s solo exhibition “New Structure and Relief” at the Arario Gallery in Seoul. (Arario Gallery)　“New Structure and Relief”: Artist Gwon O-sang, known for his sculptures made with photographs, is presenting his new series in a solo exhibition at Arario Gallery Seoul until Aug. 21. The artist presents his reinterpretation of Alexander Calder’s iconic stationary sculpture “Stabile” in his new series of photograph sculptures “New Structure” that con

Former cargo ship now an urban shelter docked at MMCA courtyard

An unusual exhibition of batik-meets-digital was held June 30 at the Art and Technology Expression Center, Seoul Institute of the Arts in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province.“Batik: Accumulation of Time – Meeting the soul of Indonesia’s traditional arts,” explored the textile design method of Batik, which dates back to the 5th century. It is still popular in its home country, and is a UNESCO-designated cultural heritage.  SIA, a prominent arts college that strives to make traditional art come alive for pre

When it was first introduced by young street dancers in New York City in the early 1970s, the distinctive art of break dancing, or B-boying, was widely seen as a nonglamourous, low-level style of street dance. Despite its absence from the mainstream pop culture spotlight, B-boying eventually made its way to Korea in the ’80s. For decades, however, break dancing was far from the mainstream and had just a small following among young, amateur dancers whose only opportunities to perform were on the

LONDON (AP) -- Georgia O’Keeffe has come to London, like a bracing American desert wind rippling the River Thames.An exhibition of more than 100 works opening this week at Tate Modern is the American art icon’s biggest-ever show outside the United States.Curators hope it will surprise visitors who know the artist mainly for her giant flowers and sun-bleached animal skulls. The exhibition also offers O’Keeffe the pioneering abstract artist, O’Keeffe the surrealist and O’Keeffe who painted New Yor

Artists from diverse backgrounds bring fresh, innovative visual displays to exhibition

AMSTERDAM (AFP) - Almost four centuries after Dutch master Rembrandt painted a young married couple, their two portraits are back home in the Netherlands thanks to a unique joint 160 million euro ($178 million) purchase with France.Dating from 1634, the portraits show wealthy Dutchman Marten Soolmans, 21, and his new wife Oopjen Coppit, 23, both wearing black with white lace as they mark a year of marriage.“It’s the first time that they are in public hands, and can be seen” by millions of people

The cast of the upcoming musical “Peste” pose at a press conference held at the Di Nozze Convention center in Seoul on Thursday. (Yonhap)　A musical based on the tragic tale of French author Albert Camus’ “The Plague” combined with the sounds of legendary K-pop icon Seo Tai-ji, new local musical “Peste” is gearing up to hit the stage later this month. 　To this day, Seo is widely considered an unparalleled iconic musician for his controversial and politically defiant lyrics that pushed the envelop

Artist reveals that police tried to get him to agree that some of the paintings were forged

Seoul Auction has withdrawn a book of sketches by Korean artist Chun Kyung-ja that was due to be auctioned Wednesday. The book of 16 drawings by Chun, bidding for which was set to start at 400 million won ($343,000), was removed from the list of artworks Tuesday, just one day before the auction, amid suspicion the sketches may be counterfeit. “An art expert raised suspicion that the sketches might have been forged at a private gathering and it has been spread in the Korean art world. We already

A painting by Korea's abstract painting master Kim Whan-ki sold for 5.4 billion won ($4.62 million), the highest price ever paid for a Korean artwork in an auction, a local art sales company said Tuesday.At the K Auction held in southern Seoul, the late artist's "Untitled 27-VII-72 #228" broke the previous record set by the very artist in April, when another of his blue-dotted abstract paintings was auctioned off for 4.86 billion won in the Seoul Auction held in Hong Kong. (Yonhap)Prior to the a