ABSALON

ABSALON (1964–1993), Israeli sculptor. Absalon was born in Ashdod as Meir Eshel and adopted the name Absalon when he arrived in Paris in the late 1980s. He won his reputation as an artist from the 1:1 scale architectural models that he constructed of idealized living units. These wooden models, painted white, demonstrate an obsession with order, arrangement, and containment, and have associations both of protective shelters and monastic cells. His sculptures are reminiscent of the works of the Russian constructivists, the Dutch De Stijl, and Le Corbusier. His last exhibition was of Six Cellules in Paris in 1993. Absalon died of aids at the age of 28.

[Shaked Gilboa (2^nd ed.)]

ax·el / ˈaksəl/ (also Ax·el) • n. Figure Skating a jump with a forward takeoff from the forward outside edge of one skate to the backward outside edge of the other, with one and a half turns in the air.