40 | FEBRUARY 9 • 2023
er, “What is your décor?” in
an attempt to determine the
customer’s personal style.
“If someone wanted a blue
mat, I’d ask, ‘Why the blue?’
There has to be a reason why.
Sometimes I might persuade
the person that another color
would be better.”
A creator of sketches and
lithographs, with a fondness
for abstracts, Paliti said he
has always pursued the goals
of “educating people about
art, displaying art and loving
art.” He added, “There is no
such thing as ‘bad’ art — it’s
just different, and different
does not mean bad.”
Paliti said he’s never dispar-
aged anything brought to him
to frame. Besides pictures,
he’s framed jerseys, collages
and shadowbox items. Paliti
is proud of being tapped as a
framer for four movies made
in Detroit during the 2008-
2015 heyday of generous tax
incentives for Michigan’s film
industry.
PROFESSIONAL PRAISE
“The work that Izzy does is so
superior,” said his close friend
Stan Carlson of Southfield.
“I’d call him a master framer.
He’s framed or restored more
than 100 works for me.”
The men “hit it off imme-
diately, 15 or 20 years ago”
when Stan, then an interior
decorator, brought Paliti a
piece to frame by his artist
son, Bowen Kline of Romeo.
“Izzy really liked my son’s
work and sold some of it in
his store,” Carlson said. Pieces
that Paliti personally matted,
framed and then sold rep-
resented a smaller aspect of
Metro Frame’s business.
Kline’s “expressive portrait”
of Paliti, as well as a picture
depicting a sunny day under
umbrellas in the old port city
of Jaffa (Yafo), near Tel Aviv,
hang in the Palitis’ neat-as-a-
pin colonial-style home pur-
chased in 1999. The array of
framed art, vintage furniture,
Sharon’s collection of antique
teacup sets, and more, were
found at flea markets, estate
and garage sales or through
Izzy’s art world connections.
Three of his favorite paint-
ings have Israel connections:
one by the late architect-artist
Louis Redstone shows “The
Sackhne” (commonly known
as Gan HaShlosha National
Park), located not far from
Beit Alfa — “it reminds me
of home;” a Tel Aviv market
scene by Yehudah Rodan and
an untitled, colorful floral
that his mother painted.
After buying the Robert
Kidd Gallery in Birmingham
eight years ago, Gerard Marti
followed up on a recommen-
dation to hire Paliti. Ticking
off the attributes of the fram-
er who became his friend,
Marti said Paliti “is very good
at what he is doing; he is easy
to work with; his work is
impressive.”
Another Metro Frame cus-
tomer is Paliti’s friend Ron
Povich, owner since 1994 of
the Golden Fig Gallery of
Fine Arts and Antiques in
Birmingham. “I met Yisrael
through Louis Redstone. Yis
does great framing, paint-
ing repairs and is helpful in
providing suggestions on the
right kind of framing to make
sure the piece looks really
good. Putting the right frame
on a piece is all the difference
between something that’s
ho-hum and something spec-
tacular.”
Restoration is a whole
adjunct to framing. Carlson
said, “Izzy’s restoration work
is unbelievable. If you take
him a ripped painting, he
could fix it to the point where
you wouldn’t know it was ever
ripped. Not every frame shop
could do that.”
With his store behind him,
Paliti said he isn’t interest-
ed in doing much framing.
But he still enjoys cleaning
and repairing works of art.
He will be keeping his hand
in with a home-based inde-
pendent business, Metro Art
Restorations. Those familiar
with Paliti’s skills couldn’t be
more pleased.
continued from page 39
BUSINESS
Sharon and Yisrael
Paliti will celebrate
their 50th anniversary
Feb. 13 on the kibbutz
where they met in
Israel.
Yisrael stands by an
untitled, colorful floral that
his mother painted.
PHOTOS BY ESTHER ALLWEISS INGBER