WEEKEND QUESTION: WHICH DO YOU PREFER, ABSTRACT ART OR REALISTIC ART, AND WHY? TELL ART TALK AND ITS READERS

Well, the weather has finally turned.

Now instead of going to a museum to escape the Wisconsin summer and cool off in the air conditioning and humidity-controlled galleries, you can go to warm up from the crisp Wisconsin fall and the walk from the parking lot.

Whatever excuse you use, there is lots going on at many museums and galleries.

This will be an especially busy weekend at the Overture Center. Two performances of the Madison Opera's performance of Puccini's "La Boheme" tonight and Sunday afternoon are sold out.

Also on the docket is the Madison Repertory Theatre's world-premiere production of the Vince Lombardi play at the Overture Playhouse.

But when you go, arrive a few minutes early so you can take in a outstanding mini-show of 24 works of abstract art in the North Henry Street Gallery of the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, which is also in the Overture Center.

Organized by curator Rick Axsom, a retired professor who taught art history for decades at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, it is a great primer for abstract art, which can be a hard sell to much of the public.

Borrowing a phrase from the great modern master Paul Klee, it is called "Making Visible the Invisible."

Axsom has written a short but excellent wall-label introduction to the history of abstract art, and he has coined three terms he uses to categorize different kinds of abstract art.

The "biomorphic" uses physiological shapes, like the skin cells you might see close up under a microscope. (As an example, see Mary Heilmann's "21st Century Fox" at the upper left.)

"Geometric" abstract art tells you what you'll see in the way of quasi-mathematical lines, shapes and composition.

And "gestural" refers to a the use of chance techniques and spontaneity in what used to be "action painting."

You'll find works by some big names - Ellsworth Kelly, Sam Gilliam, Robert Motherwell, Alexander Calder, Richard Diebenkorn - as well as less well known contemporary artists.

In any case, chances are you'll like some and not like others. But you're sure to come away glad that at least you took the time to see this show.

And if you have to rush and skip a few, not to worry.

The show will be up for about a year. So you'll have more chances to catch it and complete your tour.

Do you like abstract art? Do you prefer abstract or realistic art? Why?

Tell Art Talk and its readers.