By Marilyn Bauer
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Starting this week, Cincinnati will have an unusual chance to get up-close and personal with four masterpieces by Claude Monet.

IF YOU GO

What: Monet Masterpieces Where: Cincinnati Art Museum, 953 Eden Park Drive When: April 27-Jan. 15, 2005 Admission: Free Information: 639-2995 or Web site

On Tuesday, four paintings by the French Impressionist will be unveiled as part of a nine-month exchange with the Beyeler Foundation in Basel, Switzerland. Cincinnati is sending its well-known Miro mural and Calder mobile to the Swiss institution until January 2005. The loan includes two large versions of the Nympheas, or Water Lilies, that Monet painted toward the end of his career, as well as a painting of the Japanese bridge from his garden in Giverny, France, and one of the finest of his legendary series of paintings of the Rouen Cathedral.

"The paintings are among the radically innovative works in 20th century art," says Timothy Rub, museum director. "Even today, they have wonderful freshness and newness about them.

"Monet thought the most important thing was not to paint the thing itself but the atmosphere of air, color and light around it. He was not interested in the objects but the spaces around them."