Alfred Bader has the rare distinction of preeminence among titans of industry, connoisseurs of chemistry and the muckety-mucks of the art world.
Your fellow Milwaukeean was born in Vienna in 1924 and his early life was the fraught story of persecution and escape for 20th-century European Jews. Bader studied chemistry at Queens University in Ontario and took his Master of Arts degree and doctorate from Harvard. As a researcher himself, Bader recognized a lack of high-quality, reliably available research chemicals. By merging his business acumen and lab background, Bader made both his name and his fortune as chief chemist and co-founder of the Aldrich Chemical Company.
Among art collectors, Bader is famous for his uncanny ability to identify “sleepers”—unsigned works of uncertain provenance and hitherto misattributed paintings. Bader specializes in 17th-century Dutch works, especially Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn and the students and epigones now known as the Rembrandt School of Painters. In “The Detective’s Eye,” Timothy Cobb has compiled 17th-19th century portraits, landscapes and genre paintings from the collection of Alfred Bader Fine Arts. In addition to Bader’s beloved Dutch masters, the exhibition includes British, Flemish and French artists. “The Detective’s Eye” opens with a reception on Friday, Feb. 19, from 6-9 p.m. and is on display until March 31 at 207 E. Buffalo St.
Jon Mueller Presents “Communion”
Haggerty Museum of Art
530 N. 13th St.
Readers are choice voyeuristic material. While engrossed in the words on a page, the reader’s face becomes a conduit through which we can speculate about everything from the author’s quality to the reader’s background. In “Reading Women,” Brooklyn artist Carrie Schneider captured images of 100 women engaged with books written by female authors. Through the portraits, the viewer is invited to consider a host of questions concerning female representation. In response to “Reading Women,” on Thursday, Feb. 18 at 6 p.m., drummer and percussionist Jon Mueller will present a one-time musical performance entitled “Communion.”
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“Paper/Plastic: Contemporary Adornment”
Racine Art Museum, 441 Main St., Racine
The liberation of the artist from papal and princely patronage resulted in a democratization of both art’s subject matter and physical matter. No longer were precious stones and precious metals the artist’s medium, and the fashion of the folk was no longer regarded as an inferior source of inspiration. “Paper/Plastic: Contemporary Adornment,” opening Feb. 21 at the Racine Art Museum, presents a survey of contemporary artistic uses of non-traditional materials as adornment, including a neckpiece of Japanese papercord (mizuhiki) and a plastic 3D printed ring. The exhibition runs through June 5.
