What is unique about the art of Yaacov Agam?

 

This is not given great emphasis in the museum, but it is helpful to view Agam’s lifework from the perspective of his religious background. He was born in 1928. His father was a kabbalistic rabbi, and Agam spent the first years of his life at a cheder before going to a gymnasium at age 13. He studied art at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem and then went to Switzerland to study modern art and finally to Paris in the 1950s. He never returned to live in Israel, but remained in Paris, although he maintained close connections with Israel.

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Agam decided early in his professional life that he would not paint human figures or animals. This is not halachically forbidden, but especially in a place like Paris, where painting nudes was common place, this would have defined his place in the artistic world. It also led to a focus on geometric shapes and how to maximize their artistic value. Agam did not invent kinetic art but he was a pioneer in its use.

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Kinetic art is a form of art that incorporates movement as a fundamental element of its design. Some kinetic artworks physically move, and there are examples of this in this museum, while other works do not move but create the illusion of motion through shifting patterns, colors, or light effects. Many kinetic artworks change depending on the viewer’s position or movement, thereby engaging the audience in an active experience. Agam was a pioneer in this type of polymorphic art.

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When viewing the polymorphic art in the museum do not rush the experience by jumping from one end of the picture to the other, as I did before the guide explained that one should view the picture slowly appreciating the change in the forms of the geometric patterns and the change in color from softer (more female) colors to darker (male) colors. Agam also developed a unique technique of lenticular prints or Agamographs, in which the images are printed on a series of ridged surfaces, allowing different images to be seen from different angles. Some of his abstract art is based on religious and kabbalistic imagery.

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Yaacov Agam has described what he was attempting to do in his early years: "[My works] reflect my efforts to reach beyond the boundaries of artistic expression. I aspired to create a type of painting that exists in both space and time, where it can develop and change. My goal was to produce infinite plastic situations that emerge from one another, with their continuous appearance and disappearance offering constant discovery and renewal."

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Agam did not return to Israel after his initial training. One might speculate that he would not have received the international recognition he achieved working outside the center of modern art in Europe. His works have been exhibited in prestigious museums and galleries including the Musée National d’Art Moderne in Paris, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in Tel Aviv. Awards & honors he has received are the Prix de la Critique in Paris in 1953 in recognition of his innovative contributions to kinetic art, the Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in France in 1974 for his contributions to art, this being one of France’s highest civilian honors, and the Jan Amos Comenius Medal awarded by UNESCO in 1996 for his contributions to art education and his cultural impact. His public art installations include the "The Agam Fountain," a large-scale kinetic fountain in the business district of Paris, “The Panoramic Frieze" commissioned by French President Georges Pompidou for the presidential Elysée Palace in Paris, his "Peace Monument" in Chicago, a symbolic sculpture reflecting his themes of movement and harmony, and the "Gates of Faith" in Los Angeles, a major sculpture representing Jewish spiritual themes.