Yaacov Agam Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
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.
1970s Abstract Yaacov Agam Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Paper, Gouache
1980s Abstract Geometric Yaacov Agam Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Archival Paper, Permanent Marker
1990s Op Art Yaacov Agam Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Archival Paper, Permanent Marker
1960s Abstract Geometric Yaacov Agam Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Paper, Watercolor, Pen, Pencil
2010s Abstract Expressionist Yaacov Agam Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Paint, Paper, Acrylic, Tempera, Watercolor, Graphite, Conté, Oil Pastel,...
2010s Abstract Geometric Yaacov Agam Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Canvas, Gouache, Archival Paper, Color Pencil, Graphite
1950s Abstract Geometric Yaacov Agam Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Egg Tempera, Postcard, Pen
2010s Abstract Geometric Yaacov Agam Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Pastel, Archival Paper, Pen
2010s Abstract Yaacov Agam Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Archival Paper, Ink, Gouache
2010s Neo-Expressionist Yaacov Agam Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Paper, Watercolor, Permanent Marker
2010s Contemporary Yaacov Agam Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Paper, Ink, Watercolor, Pen, Permanent Marker, Color Pencil
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Yaacov Agam Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Archival Paper, Permanent Marker
2010s Abstract Geometric Yaacov Agam Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Pastel, Archival Paper, Pen
1990s Abstract Yaacov Agam Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Paper, Board, Pencil, Gouache
2010s Abstract Geometric Yaacov Agam Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Pastel, Archival Paper, Pen
Yaacov Agam drawings and watercolor paintings for sale on 1stDibs.
Artists Similar to Yaacov Agam
- 1stDibs ExpertMay 14, 2024The 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.