Paper-cut show highlights late Matisse works

Blue figures swim around walls, dancers prance in a circle and flowers sprout on a huge canvas in an exhibition of the cut-out works of French artist Henri Matisse that opened on Sunday.

The show, Henri Matisse: the Cut-Outs, which runs through Feb 8 at the Museum of Modern Art, includes 100 works from private and public collections, drawings, textiles and stained glass from the final years of the renowned artist, who died in 1954 at the age of 84.

"It is the most extensive exhibition of this period of Matisse's work ever mounted," says Jodi Hauptman, a curator of the show.