Matisse

Thursday's auction of books and graphics at Freeman/Fine Arts of Philadelphia Inc. reveals some of the highs, lows and quirks of that particular market. The top prices, for instance, are likely to be fetched by antique books with copious illustrations, to judge from presale estimates in the illustrated $10 catalog. That is because the pictures have a way of being torn from the books and framed as artwork. A four-figure price is expected for George Henry Mason's The Costume of China, one of more than 50 lots of books devoted to Chinese culture and commerce.

It seems like such an innocuous item, a colorful silk scarf adapted from a Matisse goldfish painting. For several years, however, the scarf and others like it have been a sore spot with the Matisse estate, which is run by the impressionist's grandson, Claude Duthuit. The estate forbids the reproduction of any of Matisse's works on scarves or dresses. An agent for Duthuit repeatedly has asked the Metropolitan Museum of Art, maker of the scarves, to cease production. The museum steadfastly has refused, a stance made possible because Matisse's works are not covered by copyright in the United States.

The new electrical and security systems have been installed. A wheelchair lift and new elevator are being readied. The chandeliers will be retrofitted and the ugly fire door that long obstructed Matisse's magnificent "Joy of Life" has been removed. The $10.5 million renovation of the Barnes Foundation in Merion continues apace. But the question remains: Will this remarkably idiosyncratic collection be changed for the better or worse when the canvases now hanging in the Philadelphia Museum of Art are reinstalled and the Barnes reopens?

THE BARNES collection should stay in Merion because it is prudent to disperse our art collections out from city centers. The British learned this in the blitz of World War II. In this age of terror, it's folly to line up our priceless art collections like sitting ducks in the center of our cities. The Barnes should stay in Merion because this is where Matisse visited and the specific site for which he created his famous mural "La Danse. " It's also the site for which Lipchitz designed his bas-reliefs.

Gifted, ridden by Carol Lavell, won the Grand Prix Special with a score of 67.658 as the five-day Dressage at Devon concluded last night at the Devon Horse Show Grounds. There was another large crowd, but not the equal of the 15,000 who attended Saturday's events. Lavell also rode Gifted to a triumph in the Grand Prix. In both the Grand Prix Special and the Grand Prix, Ariston, ridden by Bent Jensen, finished second. Jensen rode Timor to first place in the first division of the Fourth Level and also finished first aboard Matisse in the second division.

Patricia McCoy Burns, 78, of Gladwyne, an artist and videographer, died Monday, June 6, at Bryn Mawr Hospital. She had been hospitalized since the week before for shortness of breath, and autopsy results were pending. Mrs. Burns always found time for her art, painting portraits of her six children when they were young, son Robert said. Working in acrylics, she concentrated on abstract forms in the last few years. "Abstraction gives me room to dream. I paint purely from the passion of the paint, the moment, and my guts," Mrs. Burns wrote on her website.

The owner of the small, dark canvas with the swirling brushstrokes thinks it may be a rare find: a previously unknown painting from the hand of Vincent van Gogh. Jennifer Mass agrees that this is quite possible, but she is not contemplating the brushstrokes. She's looking at the mercuric sulfide and iron hexacyanoferrate. Those are two of the materials present in the paint, and Mass, a chemist by training, is among a small but growing group of scholars who apply the rigid principles of science to the world of art. She is head of the scientific research and analysis lab at Winterthur in Delaware, analyzing art in that museum's collection as well as for other museums and owners who come calling.

Mention Giacometti and a specter of elongated, walking bronze figures comes to mind. Alberto Giacometti is recognized as one of this century's great sculptors. It wasn't sculpture, however, that brought a crowd of bidders and onlookers to Christie's last month for an auction of work by Giacometti. What caused the excitement was furniture made by Alberto and his brother Diego that has become highly popular with collectors able to pay the high price it commands. The Nov. 20 sale offered the largest group of Giacometti furniture ever auctioned at one time.

Tie-dye shirts. Japanese Bonsai trees. Works by Matisse in New York City. A broad spectrum of cultural art courses and other activities will be offered again this year at the Community Arts Center in Wallingford. Classes, all-day bus trips to Manhattan and other art exhibits are scheduled for the fall and winter season, which begins after the center reopens from its summer break on Tuesday. The center, the largest in lower Delaware County, is a nonprofit organization.

I suppose it could be argued that we brought it all on ourselves by waiting until the penultimate week of the Matisse retrospective to plan a trip to New York. But then we would have missed finding out how the museum hot-ticket world works. The show has closed now, but the lessons we learned will be useful in dealing with the next New York blockbuster. When you call the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) from Philadelphia, you get one of those elaborate multiple-choice recordings that eventually tells you what you need to do to get tickets for the exhibit.