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Yaacov Agam Art

Israeli, 1928-2026

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.

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Artist: Yaacov Agam
Yaacov Agam, Composition on a Black Background, from XXe siecle, 1978
Yaacov Agam, Composition on a Black Background, from XXe siecle, 1978

Yaacov Agam, Composition on a Black Background, from XXe siecle, 1978

By Yaacov Agam

Located in Southampton, NY

This exquisite lithograph by Yaacov Agam (1928-2026), titled Composition sur fond noir (Composition on a Black Background), from the album XXe siecle, Nouvelle serie, XL Annee, No. 5...

Category

1970s Op Art Yaacov Agam Art

Materials

Lithograph

Yaacov Agam, Polymorphic Composition, from XXe siecle, 1980
Yaacov Agam, Polymorphic Composition, from XXe siecle, 1980

Yaacov Agam, Polymorphic Composition, from XXe siecle, 1980

By Yaacov Agam

Located in Southampton, NY

This exquisite lithograph by Yaacov Agam (1928-2026), titled Composition polymorphe (Polymorphic Composition), from the album Homage to Agam, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Exhibition ...

Category

1980s Op Art Yaacov Agam Art

Materials

Lithograph

Yaacov Agam, Composition in Motion, from XXe siecle, 1980
Yaacov Agam, Composition in Motion, from XXe siecle, 1980

Yaacov Agam, Composition in Motion, from XXe siecle, 1980

By Yaacov Agam

Located in Southampton, NY

This exquisite lithograph by Yaacov Agam (1928-2026), titled Composition en mouvement (Composition in Motion), from the album Homage to Agam, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Exhibition ...

Category

1980s Op Art Yaacov Agam Art

Materials

Lithograph

Image au Carre, Geometric Kinetic Painting by Yaacov Agam
Image au Carre, Geometric Kinetic Painting by Yaacov Agam

Image au Carre, Geometric Kinetic Painting by Yaacov Agam

By Yaacov Agam

Located in Long Island City, NY

"Image au Carre" or "Square Image" is an original painting on linen mounted to wood by Israeli Kinetic artist, Yaacov Agam. The painting is signed, titled and dated verso and signed/...

Category

1990s Abstract Geometric Yaacov Agam Art

Materials

Wood, Acrylic

Spectrum
Spectrum

Yaacov AgamSpectrum

Price Upon Request

Spectrum

By Yaacov Agam

Located in Missouri, MO

Spectrum By. Yaacov Agam (Israeli, b. 1928) Signed Lower Right Edition 158/180 Lower Left Unframed: 27" x 33.5" Framed: 36.5" x 43" Yaacov Agam is one of the pioneer creators of the kinetic movement in art as well as its most outstanding contemporary representative. Agam was born in 1928 a son of a Rabbi of Rishon LeZion (Israel), who devoted his life to the study of Jewish religious matters and wrote books. Agam considers himself somehow as a visual continuation of his father's quest for spirituality. He studied at the Bezalel Academy of Art in Jerusalem, and in Switzerland at the Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule and the Zurich University. After arriving to Paris in 1951, Agam held his first one man exhibition with a great success in 1953 This exhibition consisted totally of kinetic, movable and transformable paintings, which actually was the first one-man show in art history exclusively devoted to kinetic art. A passionate experimenter, Agam deals with such problems as the 4th dimension, simultaneity and time in the visual, plastic arts, and has extended his experiments to application in the fields of literature, music and art theory. His works express a concept that breaks away with the established way of expressing reality in limited, static way. In his works, he strives to demonstrate the principle of reality as a continuous "becoming" rather than static "graven image." His paintings Double Metamorphosis 11 in the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Transparent Rhythms 11 in the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. give the best example of his polymorphic painting. His works are placed in many public places including Communication x 9 on the Michigan Avenue in Chicago (1983), Communication: Night and Day at the AT&T building in New York (1974), Super Lines Volumes at the Pare Floral in Paris (1971), and his murals Peace and Life arc installed at the Parliament of Europe in Strasbourg (1977). Agam has expressed the new concepts in monumental works as in his Jacob's Ladder, which forms the ceiling of the National Convention House in Jerusalem. He created a "floating museum", including all the artworks for public areas and cabins, for the Carnival Cruise Line's luxury cruise ship "Celebration" (1987). His fire-water fountain in Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv (1986) streams water, fire, and music -elements of flux and life which cannot be static - as its colored elements rotate in this multidimensional monumental work. For the Elysee Palace in Paris, with the request of President Georges Pompidou Agam created in 1972 a whole environmental of the Salon with the walls covered with polymorphic murals of changing images a kinetic ceiling, moving transparent colored doors and a kinetic carpet on which he placed a sculpture. It embraces viewers: they are no longer looking at a framed, fixed scene, but rather arc moving within an artistic space which changes constantly according to their shifting position and point of view. Similar attempt was made for the concert hall, Forum Leverkusen in Germany in 1970. Agam created many environmental sculptures, including Hundred Gates in the garden of the residence of the President of Israel in Jerusalem, 3 x 3 Interplay installed at the Julliard School of Music at the Lincoln Center and Wings of the Heart at J. F. Kennedy airport in New York. In 1984, he made a sculpture Beating Heart for the Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. In 1988, he created a transparent torah ark...

Category

20th Century Abstract Yaacov Agam Art

Materials

Lithograph

Emerging
Emerging

Yaacov AgamEmerging, 1985

Price Upon Request

Emerging

By Yaacov Agam

Located in Missouri, MO

Emerging, 1985 By. Yaacov Agam ( Israeli, b. 1928) Color Serigraph Signed Lower Right Edition 1/12 Lower Left Unframed: 25" x 31" Framed: 34" x 43" Yaacov Agam is one of the pioneer creators of the kinetic movement in art as well as its most outstanding contemporary representative. Agam was born in 1928 a son of a Rabbi of Rishon LeZion (Israel), who devoted his life to the study of Jewish religious matters and wrote books. Agam considers himself somehow as a visual continuation of his father's quest for spirituality. He studied at the Bezalel Academy of Art in Jerusalem, and in Switzerland at the Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule and the Zurich University. After arriving to Paris in 1951, Agam held his first one man exhibition with a great success in 1953 This exhibition consisted totally of kinetic, movable and transformable paintings, which actually was the first one-man show in art history exclusively devoted to kinetic art. A passionate experimenter, Agam deals with such problems as the 4th dimension, simultaneity and time in the visual, plastic arts, and has extended his experiments to application in the fields of literature, music and art theory. His works express a concept that breaks away with the established way of expressing reality in limited, static way. In his works, he strives to demonstrate the principle of reality as a continuous "becoming" rather than static "graven image." His paintings Double Metamorphosis 11 in the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Transparent Rhythms 11 in the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. give the best example of his polymorphic painting. His works are placed in many public places including Communication x 9 on the Michigan Avenue in Chicago (1983), Communication: Night and Day at the AT&T building in New York (1974), Super Lines Volumes at the Pare Floral in Paris (1971), and his murals Peace and Life arc installed at the Parliament of Europe in Strasbourg (1977). Agam has expressed the new concepts in monumental works as in his Jacob's Ladder, which forms the ceiling of the National Convention House in Jerusalem. He created a "floating museum", including all the artworks for public areas and cabins, for the Carnival Cruise Line's luxury cruise ship "Celebration" (1987). His fire-water fountain in Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv (1986) streams water, fire, and music -elements of flux and life which cannot be static - as its colored elements rotate in this multidimensional monumental work. For the Elysee Palace in Paris, with the request of President Georges Pompidou Agam created in 1972 a whole environmental of the Salon with the walls covered with polymorphic murals of changing images a kinetic ceiling, moving transparent colored doors and a kinetic carpet on which he placed a sculpture. It embraces viewers: they are no longer looking at a framed, fixed scene, but rather arc moving within an artistic space which changes constantly according to their shifting position and point of view. Similar attempt was made for the concert hall, Forum Leverkusen in Germany in 1970. Agam created many environmental sculptures, including Hundred Gates in the garden of the residence of the President of Israel in Jerusalem, 3 x 3 Interplay installed at the Julliard School of Music at the Lincoln Center and Wings of the Heart at J. F. Kennedy airport in New York. In 1984, he made a sculpture Beating Heart for the Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. In 1988, he created a transparent torah ark...

Category

20th Century Abstract Yaacov Agam Art

Materials

Lithograph

Curtain
Curtain

Yaacov AgamCurtain

Price Upon Request

Curtain

By Yaacov Agam

Located in Missouri, MO

Curtain By. Yaacov Agam (Israeli, b. 1928) Signed Lower Right Edition 221/227 Unframed: 18" x 22.5" Framed: 30.5" x 34.5" Yaacov Agam is one of the pioneer creators of the kinetic movement in art as well as its most outstanding contemporary representative. Agam was born in 1928 a son of a Rabbi of Rishon LeZion (Israel), who devoted his life to the study of Jewish religious matters and wrote books. Agam considers himself somehow as a visual continuation of his father's quest for spirituality. He studied at the Bezalel Academy of Art in Jerusalem, and in Switzerland at the Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule and the Zurich University. After arriving to Paris in 1951, Agam held his first one man exhibition with a great success in 1953 This exhibition consisted totally of kinetic, movable and transformable paintings, which actually was the first one-man show in art history exclusively devoted to kinetic art. A passionate experimenter, Agam deals with such problems as the 4th dimension, simultaneity and time in the visual, plastic arts, and has extended his experiments to application in the fields of literature, music and art theory. His works express a concept that breaks away with the established way of expressing reality in limited, static way. In his works, he strives to demonstrate the principle of reality as a continuous "becoming" rather than static "graven image." His paintings Double Metamorphosis 11 in the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Transparent Rhythms 11 in the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. give the best example of his polymorphic painting. His works are placed in many public places including Communication x 9 on the Michigan Avenue in Chicago (1983), Communication: Night and Day at the AT&T building in New York (1974), Super Lines Volumes at the Pare Floral in Paris (1971), and his murals Peace and Life arc installed at the Parliament of Europe in Strasbourg (1977). Agam has expressed the new concepts in monumental works as in his Jacob's Ladder, which forms the ceiling of the National Convention House in Jerusalem. He created a "floating museum", including all the artworks for public areas and cabins, for the Carnival Cruise Line's luxury cruise ship "Celebration" (1987). His fire-water fountain in Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv (1986) streams water, fire, and music -elements of flux and life which cannot be static - as its colored elements rotate in this multidimensional monumental work. For the Elysee Palace in Paris, with the request of President Georges Pompidou Agam created in 1972 a whole environmental of the Salon with the walls covered with polymorphic murals of changing images a kinetic ceiling, moving transparent colored doors and a kinetic carpet on which he placed a sculpture. It embraces viewers: they are no longer looking at a framed, fixed scene, but rather arc moving within an artistic space which changes constantly according to their shifting position and point of view. Similar attempt was made for the concert hall, Forum Leverkusen in Germany in 1970. Agam created many environmental sculptures, including Hundred Gates in the garden of the residence of the President of Israel in Jerusalem, 3 x 3 Interplay installed at the Julliard School of Music at the Lincoln Center and Wings of the Heart at J. F. Kennedy airport in New York. In 1984, he made a sculpture Beating Heart for the Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. In 1988, he created a transparent torah ark...

Category

20th Century Abstract Yaacov Agam Art

Materials

Lithograph

Blue Rings (Abstract Composition)
Blue Rings (Abstract Composition)

Blue Rings (Abstract Composition)

By Yaacov Agam

Located in Missouri, MO

Blue Rings (Abstract Composition), Serigraph By Yaacov Agam (Israeli, b. 1928) Signed Lower Right Edition 8/270 Lower Left Unframed: 21" x 21.5" Framed: 31" ...

Category

20th Century Abstract Yaacov Agam Art

Materials

Lithograph

Abstract Purple, Blue, Greens
Abstract Purple, Blue, Greens

Abstract Purple, Blue, Greens

By Yaacov Agam

Located in Missouri, MO

Abstract Purple, Blue, Greens (Serigraph) By Yaacov Agam (Israeli, b. 1928) Signed Lower Right Edition 4/30 Lower Left Unframed: 14" x 33" Framed: 21" x 41" Yaacov Agam is one of the pioneer creators of the kinetic movement in art as well as its most outstanding contemporary representative. Agam was born in 1928 a son of a Rabbi of Rishon LeZion (Israel), who devoted his life to the study of Jewish religious matters and wrote books. Agam considers himself somehow as a visual continuation of his father's quest for spirituality. He studied at the Bezalel Academy of Art in Jerusalem, and in Switzerland at the Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule and the Zurich University. After arriving to Paris in 1951, Agam held his first one man exhibition with a great success in 1953 This exhibition consisted totally of kinetic, movable and transformable paintings, which actually was the first one-man show in art history exclusively devoted to kinetic art. A passionate experimenter, Agam deals with such problems as the 4th dimension, simultaneity and time in the visual, plastic arts, and has extended his experiments to application in the fields of literature, music and art theory. His works express a concept that breaks away with the established way of expressing reality in limited, static way. In his works, he strives to demonstrate the principle of reality as a continuous "becoming" rather than static "graven image." His paintings Double Metamorphosis 11 in the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Transparent Rhythms 11 in the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. give the best example of his polymorphic painting. His works are placed in many public places including Communication x 9 on the Michigan Avenue in Chicago (1983), Communication: Night and Day at the AT&T building in New York (1974), Super Lines Volumes at the Pare Floral in Paris (1971), and his murals Peace and Life arc installed at the Parliament of Europe in Strasbourg (1977). Agam has expressed the new concepts in monumental works as in his Jacob's Ladder, which forms the ceiling of the National Convention House in Jerusalem. He created a "floating museum", including all the artworks for public areas and cabins, for the Carnival Cruise Line's luxury cruise ship "Celebration" (1987). His fire-water fountain in Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv (1986) streams water, fire, and music -elements of flux and life which cannot be static - as its colored elements rotate in this multidimensional monumental work. For the Elysee Palace in Paris, with the request of President Georges Pompidou Agam created in 1972 a whole environmental of the Salon with the walls covered with polymorphic murals of changing images a kinetic ceiling, moving transparent colored doors and a kinetic carpet on which he placed a sculpture. It embraces viewers: they are no longer looking at a framed, fixed scene, but rather arc moving within an artistic space which changes constantly according to their shifting position and point of view. Similar attempt was made for the concert hall, Forum Leverkusen in Germany in 1970. Agam created many environmental sculptures, including Hundred Gates in the garden of the residence of the President of Israel in Jerusalem, 3 x 3 Interplay installed at the Julliard School of Music at the Lincoln Center and Wings of the Heart at J. F. Kennedy airport in New York. In 1984, he made a sculpture Beating Heart for the Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. In 1988, he created a transparent torah ark...

Category

20th Century Abstract Yaacov Agam Art

Materials

Lithograph

Abstract Composition
Abstract Composition

Abstract Composition

By Yaacov Agam

Located in Missouri, MO

Yaacov Agam "Abstract Composition" Agamograph Ed. 17/25 Signed and Numbered Site Size: approx 13 x 16 inches Framed: approx. 22.5 x 24.5 inches An agamograph is a series of images ...

Category

Late 20th Century Modern Yaacov Agam Art

Materials

Screen

Star of Peace
Star of Peace

Star of Peace

By Yaacov Agam

Located in Missouri, MO

Yaacov Agam "Star of Peace" c. 1970s Metal Ed. 2/300 approx. 9 x 2 x 2 inches Born in Israel on May 11, 1928. His father was a rabbi, a Talmudic scholar and a Kabbalist. The famil...

Category

1970s Abstract Yaacov Agam Art

Materials

Metal

Yaacov Agam art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Yaacov Agam art available for sale on 1stDibs. If you’re browsing the collection of art to introduce a pop of color in a neutral corner of your living room or bedroom, you can find work that includes elements of purple, blue, orange and other colors. You can also browse by medium to find art by Yaacov Agam in screen print, lithograph, paper and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the abstract style. Not every interior allows for large Yaacov Agam art, so small editions measuring 2 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Roy Ahlgren, Julian Stanczak, and Richard Anuszkiewicz. Yaacov Agam art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $150 and tops out at $175,000, while the average work can sell for $2,600.

Artists Similar to Yaacov Agam

Questions About Yaacov Agam Art

  • 1stDibs ExpertMay 14, 2024
    The style of art that Yaacov Agam created has varied over the course of his career. He 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. Some of his famous works include Double Metamorphosis, Star of David, Night Constellation and Grand Oeil Cosmique. Explore an assortment of Yaacov Agam art on 1stDibs.