PICTURE THIS RARE FRENCH MASTERWORKS COME TO LACMA VIA MOSCOW FOR THEIR FIRST-EVER VIEWING IN THE U.S.

Byline: Rob Lowman Entertainment Editor

There is always that ``wow'' moment the first time you see a famous work of art. It doesn't matter how often you've studied it in a book. Somehow it's bigger, smaller, darker, lighter or simply more than you've imagined. And if it's an oil, the paint itself gives the work a dimension that goes beyond its thickness.

``It's just like looking at an apple and eating an apple,'' explains J. Patrie Marandel, chief curator for European Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. ``It's a different experience. I don't know how else to say it.''

Maybe no one does, which is the beauty of art, but the current LACMA exhibition - '`Old Masters, Impressionists and Moderns: French Masterworks From the State Pushkin Museum, Moscow'' - will give Angelenos ample opportunity for those wow moments. Fifty-two of the 76 paintings from the prestigious Russian art institute are on display in this country for the first time. Among them are recognizable works from such masters as Matisse, van Gogh, Cezanne and Picasso.

For instance, take Henri Matisse's intoxicating 1912 ``Nasturtiums and the Dance'' - well, almost anyone would. A painting that most will recognize from posters and postcards, it is, as Marandel notes, an ``icon of the 20th-century art.'' And while Pushkin Museum director Irina Antonova calls all the works in the exhibition ``her children,'' when pressed she admits a fondness for this Matisse. Of course, the sprightly 81-year-old Antonova has had plenty of time to fall in love with it, having headed the venerable Moscow museum for 42 years, through the ideological Communist times when works by artists such as Matisse were stored in the basement and through the lean times of the new Russia of the '90s when funding was often a fraction of what the museum needed.

Things are better now. Less well-known than the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the Pushkin, as Antonova says, is now learning about sponsors. This exhibit, which first toured Houston and Atlanta and is backed to the tune of $2 million by the Altria Group (formerly Philip Morris), is helping to put the museum on the U.S. map.

``It's one of the great museums for European art in the world,'' says Janet Landay, curator of exhibitions for the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Aware that there never had been an exhibition in America that focused on the Pushkin, Landay wanted to bring some of its works of art to the United States. About 3 1/2 years ago, she made a trip to Moscow, enlisting the aid of Gregory Guroff, president of the Foundation for International Arts and Education in Bethesda, Md., because he knew Antonova. She and Antonova quickly established a relationship between the two museums; then it became a matter of deciding what kind of touring exhibition to mount.

``We wanted American audiences - if this was to introduce them to the Pushkin Museum - to understand the breadth of its collection,'' adds Landay. They eventually opted for the French masters, which was one of the strongest areas of the museum.

``We felt that French art would be a point of attraction for Americans,'' says Antonova.

Then things got difficult - choosing, although some works were eliminated because of a fragility issue, explains Antonova.

Even so, ``It was like being a kid in a candy store to go into her collection,'' enthuses Landay. ``It is so rich.''

To wit, there are 14 works by Cezanne at the Pushkin. ``We had a long wish list,'' says Landay, ``and the Pushkin and Madam Antonova were incredibly generous.'' They eventually settled on four Cezannes for the U.S. tour, including the striking ``Pierrot and Harlequin'' (1888). There are also two works by van Gogh, three by Picasso, three by Gauguin from his Tahitian period, two by Renoir, three each by Monet and Matisse.

``We felt you couldn't go wrong with any of them,'' says Guroff, ``but some - like Cezanne's 'Harlequin' - just leap off the wall at you. And there are several others that have no analog in the West, such as van Gogh's 'The Prison Courtyard.' I don't know if there is anything similar.''

``The Prison Courtyard'' (1890) is a painting that a lot of people are reacting to, says Marandel. Partly, he adds, because it has rarely been seen outside of Russia, and partly because ``the subject is certainly a bit different from what one associates with van Gogh.'' Indeed, the grayish-blue claustrophobic image of prisoners marching in a circle in a courtyard of a stone prison almost seems to presage some of the oppressiveness that marked the 20th century - from brutal wars and genocides.

Part of that oppressiveness occurred in the violence of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the purges afterward. Some of that pall still hangs over the Pushkin exhibit.

In 1918, the new Communist government seized art collections of two Moscow merchants, Sergei Shchukin and Ivan Morozov. The appropriated works form a major part of the Pushkin's French collection. More than 20 of the paintings in the LACMA exhibit were Shchukin's. A Shchukin heir, Andre-Marc Delocque-Fourcaud, who lives in France, has for years been trying unsuccessfully to get reparations for the works. Recently, he filed another lawsuit in Los Angeles asking the museum to remove the works once owned by Shchukin and for compensation for damages. LACMA calls the suit ``without merit.''

It's unlikely that anything will happen to affect the exhibit, since the State Department has already backed legal immunity for the Pushkin paintings while in this country since the works are owned by the Russian government. It's a common practice to protect another sovereign nation from claims against its property while in America.

As for comparisons by some that the situation is similar to the Nazis stealing art from Jewish families, there are differences. While no one - least of all Antonova - disputes the fact that the works were seized by the government, art wasn't the only thing appropriated. After the revolution, everything became property of the state - from cows to land.

The question, as Guroff sees it, is that every bit of property in Russia was once owned by somebody else. He should know - he says his family once owned hotels in the old Russian empire.

``The political decision was that these people got these collections and these properties on the backs of 99 percent of the people,'' he explains. ``The argument in Russia is that if you decided today that Shchukin and Morozov should have their collections back, then about 40 percent of the country would have to be given back to the Russian Orthodox Church and another 40 percent to the heirs of the Romanov family - and 99 percent of the population in Russia would have to be displaced.''

This dispute is not likely to be on the minds of many who walk through the pleasant, airy space created by Marandel for the LACMA exhibit. Designed so patrons don't feel constrained to follow a particular order, the classical paintings such as Poussin's still vibrant ``Rinaldo and Armida'' (1630), the oldest work in the collection, are in the center - in the so-called blue room - while the newer works are in outside rooms with pale green walls. Throughout the area are arched doorways with white trim, high ceilings and light wooden floors. To accommodate the expected crowds, the paintings are hung a bit higher than you'd normally see.

While all of the works will generate interest, many of them are clearly extraordinary, including early classical oils by Francois Boucher (``Nativity and Child With Young Saint John the Baptist)'' and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (``Virgin With a Chalice''). There's also Auguste Renoir's ``In a Garden,'' Claude Monet's ``White Water Lilies,'' Edgar Degas' ``Dancer Posing for a Photographer,'' Vincent van Gogh's ``Portrait of Dr. Rey,'' Henri Rousseau's ``Jaguar Attacking a Horse,'' and Pablo Picasso's ``Spanish Woman From Mallorca'' and ``Harlequin and His Companion.''

Eventually, though, you'll come to ``Nasturtiums and the Dance,'' which is displayed on the far wall from the entrance. Marandel describes it as a special painting, one of ``the important moments in the articulation of a new language'' in art.

But even if you don't understand the academic implications of Matisse's work, it's hard to miss the artist's intent. The connected dancers in the painting seem to float rapturously in the air against a dark blue background. The simple description for the painting is pure joy, an emotion best experienced in person.

Rob Lowman, [phone]

robert.lowman(at)dailynews.com

OLD MASTERS, IMPRESSIONISTS AND MODERNS: FRENCH MASTERWORKS FROM THE STATE PUSHKIN MUSEUM, MOSCOW

Where: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles.

When: Open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Fridays; 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays; closed Wednesdays. Through Oct. 13.

Tickets: $12 to $20. Call [phone].

CAPTION(S):

6 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) ``Nasturtiums and the Dance'' Henri Matisse 

(2 -- color) ``Dancer Posing for a Photographer'' Edgar Degas 

(3 -- color) ``Harlequin and His Companion'' Pablo Picasso

(4 -- colro) ``Portrait of Dr. Rey'' Vincent Van Gogh

(5 -- color) `` Pierrot and Harlequin'' Paul Cezanne

(6 -- color) ``Eiaha Ohipa'' (``Do Not Work,'' also known as ``Tahitians in a Room'') Paul Gauguin