A new image

From businessman to artist: Shalom Shpilman’s foray into the world of photography.

By GRAHAM LAWSON
A new image (photo credit: DAPHNA TALMON )
A new image
(photo credit: DAPHNA TALMON )
The recent opening of the Shpilman Institute of Photography (SIP) in south Tel Aviv’s Florentin neighborhood provides yet another art space in an area better known for its wood-workers and light industry.
Florentin is going through a gradual process of gentrification, and the 700- square-meter institute – which houses galleries, storerooms and a permanent collection of international and Israeli photography – joins the Benyamini Contemporary Ceramics Center, the Rosenfeld Gallery and others now located in the area.
The SIP, a nonprofit organization, was founded in 2010 by Shalom Shpilman, a former businessman and industrial engineer who made the decision to leave the business world and devote himself solely to photography and other philanthropic pursuits.
“When I reached the age of 58, I understood the latent passion within me,” says Shpilman. “From 2006- 08, I planned my exit, sold the majority of my businesses and then decided to dedicate my financial and intellectual resources to photography.”
His business savvy and drive served him well in the initial stages of his enterprise and what was essentially a life-changing decision.
“I found the transition difficult. It took me two years of struggling,” he says.
That struggle is now bearing fruit; the SIP is the only institute of its kind in the country and has already established international standing, evidenced by the presence of Quentin Bajac, chief curator of photography at MoMA, at the SIP’s recent press conference.
The years in which Shpilman planned his departure from business life were, in his own words, marked by a “journey into the world of photography, involving meetings with artists, curators, museum directors and scholars.”
He studied the history and theory of photography, built up a network of international contacts and a working knowledge of the art world, and began taking the necessary steps to realize his vision.
The institute’s declared mission is to “support scholarship and artistic projects that advance the practices, uses and effects of photography, through promoting research, debate and creative work in the field of photography, including video and experimental cinema.”
These are not just idle words. The institute has already been involved in organizing symposiums, events, conferences and workshops involving international and Israeli curators, artists and scholars to lecture and interact with a view to advancing photography in the country. The SIP also funds a grant program and, in collaboration with the Israel Museum, awards a biennial prize for excellence in photography.
Shpilman’s seemingly tireless work, along with the coordination of the SIP’s team of Israeli staff and an international board of advisers, have made all of this possible.
The exhibition that inaugurates the space, and also includes an installation by Czech-Israeli artist Jan Tichy, is titled “Luma,” stemming from the Latin word “lumen” (light). The exhibition focuses on a group of artists who worked in the early part of the 20th century and experimented with photography under the umbrella title of “New Vision,” a term coined by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy.
Moholy-Nagy, to whom the exhibition is dedicated, was a Hungarian multidisciplinary artist best known for his work in the fields of photography and what is now known as Light Art. He was a professor at the Bauhaus in Weimar before being asked to become director at the New Bauhaus in Chicago, and his influence in the photographic medium is still widely acknowledged.
One can better understand New Vision artists by placing them against the backdrop of Modernist aesthetics, and the influence of Cubism, Constructionism and German Expressionism is apparent. The works in this exhibition reveal the constant interplay of light and shadow, abstracted shapes and forms and the growing influence of modern technologies on the photographic process.
Some of these processes can be seen in Tichy’s installation, titled Things To Come 1936-2012, which was created especially for the exhibition. The work is essentially a set of variations on some film footage by Moholy- Nagy, originally intended for use in an H. G. Wells film. Tichy views Moholy-Nagy as a major influence on his work, and this installation is something of a homage.
The photographic works on display are part of Shpilman’s permanent collection.
In his short time as a collector, he has amassed upward of 700 pieces and counting, including works by Gerhard Richter, Cindy Sherman, and Israeli artists such as Yehudit Sasportas and Ilit Azoulay.
While he does not consider himself an obsessive collector, Shpilman says, “I know exactly what I am looking for.”
According to chief curator Dr. Aya Lurie, the collection will “expand to reflect our choices, depending on what we decide to purchase and what subjects we will focus on.”
The works will be exhibited in a series of themed exhibitions, and Lurie, with an eye to future collaborations, says that “we have the proper conditions that enable museums to lend us art-works and collections.”
If all this activity were not enough to keep SIP’s 64-year-old founder busy, he is completing a PhD thesis at Goldsmith’s College in London and is the main benefactor for the Tel Aviv Soloists Ensemble.
Reflecting on his decision to leave the world of business, he says, “I’m more than happy I’ve done it. I want to spend the rest of my life in the world of art, culture and philanthropy.”