Henri Matisse Exhibit at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, VA

If you love art, you should schedule a visit to the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia. The following information on the Henri Matisse exhibit is from today's issue of the museum newsletter.

WITH THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

Henri Matisse: Harmonious Color Opens Next Tuesday in Gallery 219

An exhibition featuring one of the original "Wild Beasts" will open at the Chrysler next week, our second in a series of joint exhibitions with the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

The impact Henri Matisse and his fellow fauves had on the art world is hard to imagine for a modern audience. We've seen works like this for a century. But at the time, it was an earthquake.

Their 1905 exhibition featured paintings where colors became more emotion than description, where it was color for color's sake, sometimes even without regard for the subject's natural appearance. Critic Camille Mauclair declared that "a pot of paint has been flung in the face of the public," and singled out one of Matisse's works in particular. Matisse got the last laugh; Woman with a Hat was purchased by Gertrude and Leo Stein.

Fauvism turned out to be a short-lived movement, but Matisse glided through many an artistic trend over a long and distinguished career. He created everything from collages to stained glass, from sculpture to prints, though he remains best known as a painter. He died of a heart attack at the age of 84 in 1954.

This free exhibition will be on view in Gallery 219 from Feb. 24 to June 28. Following Matisse in our series of exhibitions in conjunction with the National Gallery of Art will be works by Arshile Gorky (and a bonus painting by Gustav Klimt) in July, and Georgia O'Keeffe in October.

SHOWN ABOVE: Henri Matisse, Pianist and Checker Players, oil on canvas, 1924, National Gallery of Art. © 2014 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.