Artist of the day: Artist of the Day, February 18, 2026 : Meir Eshel (Absalon), an Israeli sculptor, architect. (#2483)

Wednesday, February 18, 2026

Artist of the Day, February 18, 2026 : Meir Eshel (Absalon), an Israeli sculptor, architect. (#2483)

Meir Eshel (1964-1993) spent most of his childhood in the city of Ashdod; from a young age, he was portrayed as a charismatic boy known for his courage and daring when he led the neighborhood children on adventures in the area, the port breakwater, and the pristine dunes that surrounded the city. Due to the intention to include him in a high school drawing study program (which he did not want), he decided at the age of 15 to move to the Israel Air Force (IAF) Technological College in Haifa. Despite the difficulty in gaining authority and discipline, Eshel graduated successfully. In 1982, he enlisted in the IDF and served about five phantom planes at the Air Force base in the Hatzerim.

Upon his release from the army in 1985–1987, Eshel lived in the dunes on the beach south of Ashdod, where he built himself a wooden hut and made a living from making jewelry at the beach. Eshel had a habit of visiting the Dead Sea and Sinai's deserted beaches and staying there for long periods.

In 1987, with the help of money he saved from the sale of the jewelry he created, Eshel flew to Paris, where he planned to save some more money and start a backpacking trip. Eshel met important artists who were deeply impressed by his personality, including Christian Boltansky and Annette Message, for whom he also served as a photography model for her works. Eshel's plan to travel the world was delayed; He remained in Paris and began studying art at the Paris-Sergey High School of the Arts (ENSAPC) and attending Boltanski's weekly class at the National High School of the Arts (ENSB-A). During this time, he adopted the name "Absalon", which was given to him as a nickname by one of his uncle's friends, due to the great resemblance between him and the figure of the biblical Absalom.

Absalon first participated in a group exhibition held in 1987 at the Villa Alésia in Paris. Between 1987 and 1991, Absalon created a series of works that dealt with the arrangement of objects in a given space. In his early works from the series, Absalon used ready-made objects that were painted or sprinkled with gypsum powder. For example, in the installation SOLITARY ROOM (first version; 1987), he presented a living space emptied of every personal dimension. The walls and basic furniture left in it were painted white, which gave the space a monastic look. From 1988 onwards, Absalon began to create such objects and objects himself. In my conversations with Absalon he has often questioned how we take for granted the shape of everyday objects in our lives. For example, he asked, "Do a fork, knife, table, bed, etc. have to look like we're used to?" In the PROPOSAL FOR A HABITAT (1990), he created a white container in which geometric elements made of wood, cardboard, and plaster and painted white were arranged.

In 1991 he moved to live and work in an atelier that had previously served the sculptor Jacques Lifshitz. The space was made available to him by a relative lawyer, who wanted to preserve the building according to the way Absalon interprets the architect's work. Absalon described his new home as: "a thinking space (the tallest and smallest), a creative space, and a display space." He renovated the space by emptying the entire contents of the house, spraying plaster on the built walls, and furnishing it with a minimal number of pieces of furniture - a bed, a chair, and two stools for the guests. At that time, AIDS illness had already broken out in Absalon's body, and he would later describe to me the renovation as an action guided by a feeling of running out of time.

Knowing of his illness, which he had hidden from most of his acquaintances and family members, Absalon began to create a large-scale project that included the construction of six residential houses he had designed for himself. These monastic houses, which he called "cells", were intended to be located in six city centers around the world (Paris, Zurich, New York, Tel Aviv, Frankfurt and Tokyo) and to constitute, he said, the "tailor-made" house.

Encouraged by the winner of the Israel Prize, the curator Yona Fischer, Absalon's first exhibition in his homeland, PROPOSALS FOR HABITATION (first version; 1990), was presented at the Ika Brown Gallery in Jerusalem in 1990. In 1992, his solo exhibition was presented at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. The work PROPOSALS FOR HABITAT (fifth version; 1992) presented a structure of square spaces connected by passage pipes and a conceivable configuration of tunnels. In addition, the exhibition CELL NO. 1 (1992) was displayed. 1: 1 according to meticulous plans and presented as a whole in the last solo exhibition in Absalon's life, at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, in 1993. However, due to his death, the construction of only two "cells", made for living was accomplished. CELL NO. 1, which was supposed to be located in the third district of Paris, was completed, including electricity and water infrastructure. The Israel Museum in Jerusalem later purchased the cell to place it permanently in the museum plaza. "Cell No. 2" Absalon did not have time to finish independently, but his team completed it according to his instructions in 1993, shortly after Absalon's death (Hauser Wirt Collection, Zurich).

In 2010 a retrospective exhibition of his works was presented at the KW Center for Contemporary Art in Berlin (Kunst-Werke Berlin). The exhibition was also shown at the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam, The Netherlands (2012), and the Tel Aviv Museum (2013). In 2021 another retrospective exhibition called "Absalon Absalon" was held at the CAPC Museum, Bordeaux, France.

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