Matisse's "Large Reclining Nude," 1935
Break out the berets and head over to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts for a free stroll through the popular "Matisse: Masterworks from the Baltimore Museum of Art," show. Adult tickets for the special exhibition are normally $16 weekdays, $20 weekends, but for one night it will be free. Tickets are timed and limited in number, however, so savvy art fans will arrive early for the 6 p.m.-9 p.m. event March 20.
For this "Third Thursday" program the museum is embracing all things French. The Alliance Francaise Mpls/St. Paul will offer informal French lessons in the galleries. Arty types can "draw with scissors" as Matisse did when nipping out his famous and very colorful cutouts of dancers cavorting in space. Museum visitors will be encouraged to confine their cutouts to post cards or collages, however.
And everyone will be encouraged to indulge in a selfie with a life-sized cutout of Matisse in the MIA photobooth. Or visitors can take self-portraits in a life-sized replica of one of the artist's paintings. Music wiil be provided by the Atlantis Quartet, a modern jazz group.
The "Matisse" show features paintings and drawings from the collections of Claribel and Etta Cone, wealthy Victorian-era Baltimore women who were introduced to Matisse at the Paris salon of writer Gertrude Stein. Over 40 years, the sisters bought more than 500 paintings, drawings and sculpture by Matisse that they later bequeathed to the Baltimore Museum of Art. The Institute's show is on loan from the Baltimore institution through May 18.
