Yaacov Agam Contemporary Art
Influenced by his upbringing in Judaism as well as the teachings of the Bauhaus, Yaacov Agam is a pioneer of kinetic art as well as the Op art movement and is often credited with introducing geometric abstraction to his home country of Israel.
Born in Rishon LeZion, Palestine — now part of Israel — the son of a rabbi, Agam found that the spiritual world had a major influence on his art practice, as did the sand dunes he grew up watching as they constantly shifted with the wind. This perpetual movement would inform his work, whereby riveting, prismatic compositions that transform from different perspectives, patterns that generate optical effects and sculptures that move with a passing breeze all reflect the gradual changes in nature.
Agam studied with Israeli painter Mordecai Ardon at the Bezalel School of Art in Jerusalem in the 1940s before traveling to Zurich where he trained with Swiss Expressionist painter Johannes Itten and was inspired by the abstract work of Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky.
One of the innovative techniques Agam developed was the Agamograph, which uses lenticular printing so that multiple images, which are revealed as the viewer moves around the piece, can be seen on a single work. His art has regularly involved the spectator as a participant, whether it’s the 1972–74 room-size kinetic installation he created for the Elysée Palace that’s now in the Centre Pompidou in which a gleaming abstract sculpture is surrounded on all sides by polychromatic lines or it’s public art like the 1986 Fire and Water Fountain in Tel Aviv with circles of vibrant panels that offer varying colors from every angle.
In 2018, the Yaacov Agam Museum of Art opened in Rishon LeZion, showcasing six decades of Agam’s influential work that engages with perception through color, shape and form, from paintings, prints and installations to new experiments in interactive digital art.
Find a collection of Yaacov Agam art today on 1stDibs.
21st Century and Contemporary French Modern Yaacov Agam Contemporary Art
Plastic, Paper
1970s Vintage Yaacov Agam Contemporary Art
Mirror
1980s Vintage Yaacov Agam Contemporary Art
Paper
1970s Vintage Yaacov Agam Contemporary Art
Paper
Late 20th Century North American Post-Modern Yaacov Agam Contemporary Art
Glass, Paper
Late 20th Century French Modern Yaacov Agam Contemporary Art
Paper
Early 2000s Hungarian Yaacov Agam Contemporary Art
Canvas
Mid-20th Century Israeli Mid-Century Modern Yaacov Agam Contemporary Art
Paper
1960s American Vintage Yaacov Agam Contemporary Art
Plexiglass, Wood, Cotton
2010s Belgian Yaacov Agam Contemporary Art
Maple
2010s American Modern Yaacov Agam Contemporary Art
Acrylic
20th Century French Modern Yaacov Agam Contemporary Art
Paper
21st Century and Contemporary American Yaacov Agam Contemporary Art
Blown Glass, Art Glass, Glass
2010s American Yaacov Agam Contemporary Art
Paper
1940s American Expressionist Vintage Yaacov Agam Contemporary Art
Board
1950s French Mid-Century Modern Vintage Yaacov Agam Contemporary Art
Wood
Late 20th Century American Art Deco Yaacov Agam Contemporary Art
Paint, Wood
1970s Swiss Organic Modern Vintage Yaacov Agam Contemporary Art
Wood, Paint
21st Century and Contemporary Yaacov Agam Contemporary Art
Plastic
20th Century North American Post-Modern Yaacov Agam Contemporary Art
Glass, Paper
1980s American Modern Vintage Yaacov Agam Contemporary Art
Paper
1980s Israeli Vintage Yaacov Agam Contemporary Art
Paper
1980s Post-Modern Vintage Yaacov Agam Contemporary Art
1980s American Modern Vintage Yaacov Agam Contemporary Art
Paper
1980s French Kinetic Vintage Yaacov Agam Contemporary Art
Paper
1960s American Post-Modern Vintage Yaacov Agam Contemporary Art
Paper