Tag Archives: matisse

draw, paint, and print

drawpaint

There’s a whole LIST on the back of an old receipt somewhere called, “Stuff I Should Have Come Up with First, and Someone Beat Me to the Punch!” And so let’s just add Marion Deuchars to my list. She has a book called “Draw, Paint, and Print like the Great Artists.”

matisse matisse1

I mean, I’m all for Matisse. The idea of painting without the mess? I’m intrigued…but you’re saying all I need to have in my craft box is crappy construction paper and some scissors to assimilate a world-famous artist? I’ll tell you what, Marion, I went more above and beyond in my program guides when I was an underpaid intern.

frida frida1

Come on, Marion — you use Frida, for crying out loud. You’re not going to have us get hit by a bus, endure 30+ surgeries, or paint ourselves with a rented monkey? No domestic feuds with a terribly unattractive male counterpart!? Yeesh, so boring. I’ll just paint me yawning in one of these decorative frames.

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odalisque

matisee-odalique

Henri Matisse’s “Odalisque” has quite a long lineage of ownership. The Nazis seized the work from art dealer Paul Rosenberg in 1941. The work traveled from Paris to New York, where it was purchased by the lumber millionaires Prentice and Virginia Bloedel. (Note: The two founded Bleodel Reserve, a pretty major mansion and wildlife habitat north of Seattle that sits on a measly 150 acres.) They donated the painting to the Seattle Art Museum in 1991.

Since “Odalisque” was a work confiscated by the Nazis, Rosenberg’s granddaughter Anne Sinclair (France’s own “Barbara Walters”) sued the Seattle Art Museum (the first lawsuit of its kind regarding looted art). The museum then sued the New York gallery (like, of course). The museum unanimously voted to give the work back in 1999. In 2007, Sinclair put the work up for auction. The price tag? 33 million.

As if this story couldn’t get more dramatic! Anne Sinclair’s ex is Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former IMF Managing Director who was acquitted of assault charges against a hotel maid. See? Told you.

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the window

Henri Matisse’s “The Window” is one of more than 1,700 works in the Detroit Institute of Art’s collection that, if private collectors get their way, may go up for auction at a high-end garage sale.

I’ve already watched the “Art of the Steal,” and I know it didn’t end well for the Barnes. Here’s hoping someone with 816 million lying around can buy the works and give them back to the DIA. And then call me.

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