The director of the National Museum of Contemporary Art abruptly quit four months before the end of his term of office. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism accepted the former MOCA head Bae Soon-hoon’s resignation on Tuesday. He is known to have submitted his letter about 20 days ago, soon after attending the parliamentary audit in which he felt extremely humiliated, according to museum officials. Several members of the National Assembly rebuked him for his “bad attitude” presented by cr

Nov. 2, 2011

BEIJING (AP) ― Outspoken artist Ai Weiwei said Tuesday that Chinese authorities are now seeking $2.4 million in back taxes and fines from him, a sign that the government is not easing pressure on the dissident detained for nearly three months earlier this year.Two officials from the Beijing Local Taxation Bureau delivered a notice to the artist Tuesday saying he owed just over 15 million yuan ($2.36 million) in back taxes and fines, Ai said in a phone interview. He had been served a tax notice i

Nov. 2, 2011

Singer-songwriter and rapper Tablo’s first solo album “Fever’s End Part 2” ranked first place on the iTunes hip hop/rap chart, as he returned to the music scene more than a year after he was embroiled in a controversy over his academic background at Stanford University.Hip hop group Epik High, of which Tablo is a member, reached top of the same chart with the album “Epilogue” in March last year.Tablo recently signed a four-year contract with YG Entertainment which boasts several K-pop idols incl

Nov. 2, 2011

LONDON (AP) ― America Ferrera is ditching the clunky braces and the thick fake eyebrows of “Ugly Betty” for sexy, slinky outfits in her West End debut as the showgirl Roxie in “Chicago.”The American actress who starred in the U.S. television series about a wise but wacky New York fashion magazine assistant is embarking on an eight-week stint in “Chicago” at the Garrick Theatre beginning Nov. 7.At a press conference Monday, the 27-year-old Ferrera said performing on the London stage is something

Nov. 1, 2011

LOS ANGELES ― Remember George Harrison’s unforgettable opening line in the Beatles’ 1969 hit “Something?” “Something in the way she moves/attracts me like no other woman.”Of course not, because he sings “lover,” not “woman.” But “woman” is what Harrison wrote before changing one word that could well have spelled the difference between a hit and a miss, an edit that’s on display at the Grammy Museum in “George Harrison: Living in the Material World,” a show focusing on the man pigeonholed early a

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

Nov. 1, 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

Oct. 31, 2011

Tickets to see boy band SHINee at the 6th London Korean Film Festival Opening Gala Concert have sold out. So many fans logged on to British online box-office website Odeon that it crashed just one minute after ticket sales began Thursday. The website was not restored for five hours, the group’s agency said.The group is to hold the one-hour gala concert on Nov. 3 at 4:30 p.m. at the Odeon West End Theater, opening the film festival, which will run for three weeks in London, Cambridge, Sheffield a

Oct. 31, 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

Oct. 30, 2011

NEW DELHI (AFP) ― Angry fans smashed equipment and hurled bottles in chaotic scenes after heavy metal group Metallica cancelled their first ever Indian gig at the last minute, reports said Saturday.Thousands of fans had already turned up at Friday’s concert, timed to coincide with this weekend’s Formula One Grand Prix, but were enraged when it was axed for safety reasons.Newspaper pictures showed piles of shattered equipment and the Times of India said one man broke his leg when he was pushed do

Oct. 30, 2011

Classical Music“Trio Owon”: Classical music group Trio Owon, led by cellist Yang Sung-won, will hold its debut concert in Korea at the LG Arts Center on Nov. 6. The other two members are pianist Emmanuel Strosser and violinist Olivier Charlier. The name “Owon” comes from late Korean painter Jang Seung-up (1843-1897), who was depicted in Im Kwon-taek’s 2002 film “Painted Fire.” The trio will showcase German Romantic musicians in the 19th century -- Schumann, Mendelssohn and Brahms. Tickets range

Oct. 28, 2011

SPO, Chung fly with Mahler No.1 Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra“Mahler Symphony No. 1”(Universal Music)After releasing the debut album “Debussy and Ravel” under Deutsche Grammophon, the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and its music director Chung Myung-whun will launch their live recording of Mahler Symphony No. 1 “Titan” on Nov. 3. The program was recorded at the Seoul Arts Center’s Concert Hall on Nov. 3, 2010, as part of the SPO’s “Mahler Series” concerts and was hugely popular among classical musi

Oct. 28, 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

Oct. 27, 2011