Henri Matisse

A Henri Matisse painting stolen a decade ago from a museum in Venezuela has been recovered 1,300 miles away in Florida. Matisse's "Odalisque in Red Pants," worth $3 million, was taken from the Sofia Imber Contemporary Art Museum and replaced with a fake, CNN reports, although officials aren't sure how thieves lifted the 1925 masterpiece -- or when. On Tuesday, a man and woman allegedly tried to sell the artwork for $740,000 to an undercover FBI agent in Miami. Pedro Antonio Marcuello Guzman, 46, of Miami, and Maria Martha Elisa Ornelas Lazo, 50, of Mexico City, have been charged with transporting and possessing stolen property.

At the Municipal Art Gallery in Barnsdall Park, the title of the exhibition "Lost (in L.A.)" pretty much describes how I felt when looking at its many sculptures, installations, videos and a few paintings. Thematic art exhibitions are sometimes puzzling, with the reasoning behind the general selection of artists or juxtapositions of specific works obscure, and that's certainly the case here. A subtitle could be: "Huh?" One of the more enchanting objects on display is a 1946 letter, although in the upper left corner, just above the salutation, it does sport a small, doodle-like ink drawing of an apple wearing a mask.

Sister Jacques-Marie, a Dominican nun whose friendship with artist Henri Matisse led him to create the Chapel of the Rosary in Vence, France, died Monday. She was 84, according to Barbara Freed, a friend of several years. She died of respiratory disease and other ailments at Les Embruns, a rehabilitation center in Bidart, France, that is operated by the Dominican nuns.

A Henri Matisse painting stolen a decade ago from a museum in Venezuela has been recovered 1,300 miles away in Florida. Matisse's "Odalisque in Red Pants," worth $3 million, was taken from the Sofia Imber Contemporary Art Museum and replaced with a fake, CNN reports, although officials aren't sure how thieves lifted the 1925 masterpiece -- or when. On Tuesday, a man and woman allegedly tried to sell the artwork for $740,000 to an undercover FBI agent in Miami. Pedro Antonio Marcuello Guzman, 46, of Miami, and Maria Martha Elisa Ornelas Lazo, 50, of Mexico City, have been charged with transporting and possessing stolen property.

MONUMENTAL is the usual term for a biography that is profoundly researched, soberly though strikingly thought out and very long. To use the word for Hilary Spurling's biography of Henri Matisse, occupying two volumes and more than 1,000 pages, would not do it justice. For one thing, it is written with unfailing grace, clarity and darting insight (astonishing for a dart to cover such a distance), its mass of materials all but volatilized.

In 1905, while living in the Mediterranean fishing village of Collioure on the frontier of Spain and France, Henri Matisse completed a painting titled "Luxe, calme et volupte." Taking his title from the refrain of the Baudelaire poem "Invitation to a Voyage," Matisse was painting on a personal frontier.

An Henri Matisse painting not seen in public for more than 50 years went on view Wednesday at the National Gallery of Art's exhibition "Henri Matisse: The Early Years in Nice, 1916-1930" in Washington. The painting, "La Toque de Velours Bleu" ("The Blue Velour Hat") features Matisse's daughter Marguerite. It was last seen in Switzerland in 1931 and had been presumed lost until it surfaced recently at the Norton Gallery of Art in West Palm Beach, Fla.

More than 100 paintings, sculptures, drawings and original prints by prominent 20th century artists, including nearly 50 artworks by Henri Matisse, have been donated to New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art from a foundation named after the artist's younger son, Pierre, and Pierre's wife. The donation from the Pierre and Maria-Gaetana Matisse Foundation is valued at nearly $100 million and includes work by modern artists Balthus, Chagall, Derain, Dubuffet, Giacometti, Miro and Tanguy.

Thieves stole works by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and others from a Berlin gallery over the New Year's holiday, police said Friday. More than 30 works, in total worth an estimated $250,000, were stolen, apparently between Wednesday afternoon and lunchtime Thursday, police spokeswoman Claudia Schweiger said. The artwork was taken from the Fasanengalerie, a private gallery near western Berlin's central shopping district. The etchings, prints and sculptures included "Profil au fond noir," a 1947 work by Picasso; "Nude in a rocking chair," a Matisse print from 1913; and "Le Boupeut," a 1962 color print by Georges Braque.

A painting by Henri Matisse that had not been seen publicly since it was exhibited in Berlin in 1930 has turned up in an art gallery after spending 38 years in the home of a Palm Beach couple. The painting, "Marguerite, la Toque de Velours Bleu," or "Marguerite in the Blue Velvet Hat," is a portrait of Matisse's daughter that was painted in 1915 or 1916.

Mickalene Thomas is to contemporary painting what Daft Punk is to music: acclaimed as one of the more original remix artists working today. The 41-year-old Brooklyn artist has borrowed images and poses from established masters such as Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Edouard Manet, Henri Matisse and Romare Bearden in her paintings. But her most recent work owes a particularly explicit debt to Gustave Courbet, the 19th-century French realist who famously painted a graphic (some say pornographic)

Reporting from San Diego ? At 78, Howard Hodgkin has slowed a bit, requiring a wheelchair lately to move about, but he remains quick as ever to speak his mind and, judging by the San Diego Museum of Art's exhibition of his recent work, compelled as ever to paint the wealth of memories and sensations that occupy it. The London-based artist appeared proud as he surveyed the show, before its opening in late January. He scoffed mildly, though, at the "innocuous and rather silly title" ?

Thieves stole works by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and others from a Berlin gallery over the New Year's holiday, police said Friday. More than 30 works, in total worth an estimated $250,000, were stolen, apparently between Wednesday afternoon and lunchtime Thursday, police spokeswoman Claudia Schweiger said. The artwork was taken from the Fasanengalerie, a private gallery near western Berlin's central shopping district. The etchings, prints and sculptures included "Profil au fond noir," a 1947 work by Picasso; "Nude in a rocking chair," a Matisse print from 1913; and "Le Boupeut," a 1962 color print by Georges Braque.

A Henri Matisse painting was auctioned at Christie's for $33.6 million, a record for the artist. The 1937 oil-on-canvas work "L'Odalisque, Harmonie Bleue," which features one of the artist's favorite models lounging behind a table with a bouquet, was purchased Tuesday night by an unidentified buyer, the auction house announced. The previous auction record for a Matisse painting was $22 million for "Danseuse dans le fauteuil, sol en damier," a 1942 work, at Sotheby's in June.

A new exhibit will focus on sculptures by Henri Matisse, the French artist best known for his vibrant paintings. The exhibit "Matisse: Painter as Sculptor" showcases more than 150 works -- including more than 40 sculptures -- and gives a glimpse of how Matisse explored recurrent themes as he worked in mediums including sculpture, painting, sketches and even paper cutouts.

Call them brothers separated at birth. One, raised in a secure part of Europe, was a fair-haired boy praised as a genius from the moment he drew his first picture. Success followed success, the world's horrors rarely touched him, and he was celebrated in death, as in life, as a visionary. The other, weaned in his nation's armpit, was dismissed from childhood as a fool or a madman -- even by his friends.

Sister Jacques-Marie, a Dominican nun whose friendship with artist Henri Matisse led him to create the Chapel of the Rosary in Vence, France, died Monday. She was 84, according to Barbara Freed, a friend of several years. She died of respiratory disease and other ailments at Les Embruns, a rehabilitation center in Bidart, France, that is operated by the Dominican nuns.

MONUMENTAL is the usual term for a biography that is profoundly researched, soberly though strikingly thought out and very long. To use the word for Hilary Spurling's biography of Henri Matisse, occupying two volumes and more than 1,000 pages, would not do it justice. For one thing, it is written with unfailing grace, clarity and darting insight (astonishing for a dart to cover such a distance), its mass of materials all but volatilized.