Yaacov Agam Mixed Media
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.
1980s Kinetic Yaacov Agam Mixed Media
Polymer
Late 20th Century Kinetic Yaacov Agam Mixed Media
Metal
Late 20th Century Kinetic Yaacov Agam Mixed Media
Silk, Screen, Color
1970s Yaacov Agam Mixed Media
Plexiglass, Photogram
1980s Yaacov Agam Mixed Media
Plexiglass, Mixed Media
Late 20th Century Kinetic Yaacov Agam Mixed Media
Metal
1980s Contemporary Yaacov Agam Mixed Media
Plexiglass, Paper, Screen
2010s Abstract Yaacov Agam Mixed Media
Polymer, Mixed Media, Wood Panel
21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Yaacov Agam Mixed Media
Wood Panel, Plexiglass, Oil Pastel, Spray Paint, Watercolor
2010s Abstract Geometric Yaacov Agam Mixed Media
Plywood, Acrylic
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Yaacov Agam Mixed Media
Stainless Steel
Early 2000s Yaacov Agam Mixed Media
Plexiglass, Acrylic
2010s Kinetic Yaacov Agam Mixed Media
Steel
2010s Contemporary Yaacov Agam Mixed Media
Silk, Mixed Media, Screen, Cotton
Early 2000s Contemporary Yaacov Agam Mixed Media
Wood, Permanent Marker, Screen, Mixed Media
2010s Kinetic Yaacov Agam Mixed Media
Aluminum
1960s Kinetic Yaacov Agam Mixed Media
Stainless Steel
2010s Kinetic Yaacov Agam Mixed Media
Stainless Steel
2010s Pop Art Yaacov Agam Mixed Media
Silk, Screen
2010s Op Art Yaacov Agam Mixed Media
Mixed Media
1990s Abstract Geometric Yaacov Agam Mixed Media
Screen, Silk
21st Century and Contemporary Kinetic Yaacov Agam Mixed Media
Mixed Media
Late 20th Century Op Art Yaacov Agam Mixed Media
Plywood
1980s Contemporary Yaacov Agam Mixed Media
Acrylic Polymer
2010s Op Art Yaacov Agam Mixed Media
Mixed Media
1980s Contemporary Yaacov Agam Mixed Media
Paper
2010s Contemporary Yaacov Agam Mixed Media
Mixed Media
1960s Kinetic Yaacov Agam Mixed Media
Cut Steel, Stainless Steel
1980s Kinetic Yaacov Agam Mixed Media
Metal