Artsy team-ups, and spring closings

History and mythology, religion, musical tradition, plus fragrant flowers. And that’s just Thursday in this week’s Art Date.

THURSDAY, APRIL 11 

Unearthing the Muse: The Archaeology that Inspired an Opera 
American Geographical Society Library
Golda Meir Library, 3rd Floor, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
2311 E. Hartford Avenue
6:30 p.m. Free and open to the public.

This Friday, Present Music will perform the world premiere of Judgment of Midas, an opera that combines contemporary characters with the world of history and myth, set against the archaeological excavations of Sardis in western Turkey. As a precursor to this event, a distinguished panel of archaeologists will discuss the setting and underlying stories at UWM’s Golda Meir Library. It is sure to be an intriguing, informative evening with Dr. Nancy Ramage (Ithaca College), Dr. Andrew Ramage (Cornell University), Dr. Kenneth Sams (University of North Carolina), and Dr. Jane Waldbaum (Professor Emerita in Art History, UWM).

Fine Arts Quartet Concert
Felix Lembersky: Soviet Form, Jewish Context
Jewish Museum Milwaukee
1360 N. Prospect Avenue
7 p.m. Free, RSVP requested: 414-390-5730.

The Fine Arts Quartet presents a concert in honor of the founding president of the museum, Marianne Lubar, with a program featuring Russian music. The musical selections complement the exhibition of paintings by Felix Lembersky, a Jewish artist who made a career in Soviet Russia.

Eggs Benedict
Portrait Society Gallery
Marshall Building, 5th Floor
207 E. Buffalo Street
Opening reception, 6-9 p.m.

Even before this carefully woven, provocative piece was finished it gained worldwide attention. The portrait of Pope Benedict XVI by artist Niki Johnson, made of 17,000 various colored condoms, will go on view in a special exhibition. As gallery director Debra Brehmer notes, “This portrait inspires broad conversations regarding the role of the church in determining morality, safe sexual practices, and the role of art as a ‘pause.’ In our fast paced blog world, news travels at incendiary rates. Something might be controversial for a day or a week and then we move on. Art embodies or gives concrete form to ideas and allows them to stay awhile, generally outside of fixed polemics.” The work will also be part of a summer exhibition at Portrait Society, Sourcebook: Martha Wilson and MKE, New Feminist Makers.

Art in Bloom
Milwaukee Art Museum
700 N. Art Museum Drive
Continues through Sunday, April 14
Admission is $15 for adults/$5 for Members

If the art is blooming, it must be spring. MAM holds its annual event combining the charms of floral design with the environment of its collection. Additional events include lectures and classes. Check the MAM website for details on sessions and reservations.

SATURDAY, APRIL 13 

This Saturday is the last chance to catch some notable gallery exhibitions:

Pushing It: Some Innovative Approaches in Contemporary Printmaking 
Dean Jensen Gallery
759 N. Water Street
Saturday hours 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

This exhibition presents an array of works by artists who touch the cutting edge with unusual approaches to printmaking. Tyanna Buie, Jose Lerma, and Judy Pfaff are a few of the artists featured.

Society of American Graphic Artists 80th Members Exhibit
DeLind Gallery of Fine Art
450 E. Mason Street
Saturday hours 10:30 a.m.-4 p.m.

This extensive show brings together more than one hundred prints and celebrates prominent printmakers including Warrington Colescott, Francis Myers, and Raymond Gloeckler.

Contemporary Prints 
Tory Folliard Gallery
233 N. Milwaukee Street
Saturday hours 11 a.m.-4 p.m.

This group exhibition of lively prints features a number of Wisconsin-based artists including T.L. Solien, Fred Stonehouse, Tom Uttech, and John Wilde.

IN MEMORIAM

Cissie Peltz ran her gallery out of a big, purple Victorian house on the lower East Side. It was chock-full of surprises, with a mix of artists from across the state and around the world. Peltz was a warm, friendly presence, gracious and patient with browsing visitors and artistic conversation. The walls were a cornucopia of delight, and the creaking floors had the sound that only comes from a place that has been around a long, long time. An era has come to an end with Peltz’s death on April 3 at the age of 85, as she succumbed to complications of breast cancer. She will be very much missed in the art community — but note that the gallery lives on.