Japanese prints, slow art, abstraction and more

Catch up on Milwaukee art news, plus exhibitions opening and closing: Japanese prints, intense detail, slow art, midcentury abstraction and contemporary interpretations.

This June, the Milwaukee Art Museum will welcome Tanya Paul to its staff as the Isabel and Alfred Bader Curator of European Art. This named position is courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Bader of Milwaukee, who are important collectors of Dutch and Flemish Baroque art. Paul’s scholarly background in the realms of Dutch painting, European printmaking, and other aspects Old Master art suggest she will be an exciting addition to the museum’s staff.

Art dealer and artist Cissie Peltz is honored at the Milwaukee Art Museum with a posthumous exhibition which opened on April 23. The memorial brings together multiple aspects of Peltz’ life in art. It includes works by artists whom she represented in her gallery, such as Warrington Colescott, and highlights Peltz’s work as a cartoonist. MAM’s tribute to Peltz acknowledges her longtime support of the museum’s Print Forum and Contemporary Art Society. Even after her passing earlier this month, Cissie Peltz is still a presence in the Milwaukee art community through this exhibition, and Peltz Gallery remains open in its cozy purple Victorian home on Knapp Street.

THURSDAY, APRIL 25

Ukiyo-e or “pictures of the floating world” are on view through Thursday in the UWM Art History Gallery.

Country Views and City Life: Exploring the Japanese Woodblock Print Tradition 
UWM Art History Gallery
Mitchell Hall, Room 154
3203 N. Downer Avenue
Exhibition closes Thursday, April 25.

Ukiyo-e, also known as “pictures of the floating world,” are the focus of this exhibition. The subjects range from theatrical figures to travel and landscape scenes, and represent images popular with collectors in Japan and Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries. Curator Hilary K. Snow has brought this exhibition together, drawing from holdings in the UWM Art History collection and the Collection of Ron Dunnett. The exhibition closes Thursday at 4 p.m.

FRIDAY, APRIL 26 

Harold E. Hansen: Realist
River Edge Gallery
184 S. Main Street, Thiensville
Opening reception 5-8 p.m.
Exhibition continues through June 8

Harold E. Hansen’s Musée d’Orsay is featured in his new exhibition at River Edge Gallery.

The lithographs, watercolors, and oil paintings of Harold E. Hansen cover a wide territory: highly textured architectural studies, vignettes capturing moments and shadows caught while traveling abroad, and quotidian charms nearer to home. Hansen’s images reveal a keen sense for detail and visual accuracy, often infused with a sense of low-key mystery.

SATURDAY, APRIL 27 

SLOW ART DAY

Linger over a single work of art for a period of sustained viewing and as hosted by a couple of area museums, much pleasant discussion. It’s a little like magic: the longer you look, the more art is revealed.

Milwaukee Art Museum 
700 N. Art Museum Drive
10:30 a.m.
RSVP to adults@mam.org or 414-224-3826

A slow art discussion typically involves a small group and casual conversation, facilitated by a museum guide for about 30 minutes.

Haggerty Museum of Art
Marquette University Campus, 13th and Clybourn
Gallery talk with Kevin Miyazaki,1 p.m.

Photographer Kevin J. Miyazaki’s work is currently featured in the exhibition Perimeter. Join Kevin for a gallery talk and a virtual excursion on this Slow Art Day.

SUNDAY, APRIL 28

Ellsworth Kelly, Red Blue, 1964. Screenprint on Mohawk Superfine Cover paper, 24 x 20 inches. Edition of 500. © Ellsworth Kelly and Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut. Collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer.

Ellsworth Kelly Prints 
Simon Payne: Color Field Videos
Madison Museum of Contemporary Art
227 State Street, Madison
Exhibition closes April 28.

If you’ve been thinking about a drive to Madison, this may be the weekend to go in order to catch the closing of these two exhibitions. The retrospective of Ellsworth Kelly prints features decades of work, from his hard-edge prints of the 1960s to more gestural, textured contemporary pieces.

Complementing the Kelly prints are five digital works by British artist Simon Payne. These are plays of bright color and pulsing form, sharp geometrics that defy stasis by challenging and shifting the viewer’s perception.