Artist 50: Yaakov Agam

Yaakov Agam was born in 1928 in Palestine.  He is a sculptor and did experiments in optical and kinetic art.  He got his formal art training at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem.  He then moved to Zürich Switzerland in 1949 to study at the Kunstgewerbe Schule.  Then in 1951, Agam moved to Paris where he still lives with his three children.  In 1953 he had his first solo exhibition, and in his 1955 exhibition he established himself as a leading artist of kinetic art.  Agam’s art is characterized by his abstract style in his kinetic art as well as the movement of this piece along with the interaction between the viewer and the artist along with his use of light and sound.  Most of his sculptures are placed in public spaces.  Other than sculptures, Agam was also known for a type of print called the Agamograph, which is a lenticular printing that looks very different when viewed from different angles.  In 1972 he had a retrospective exhibition in Paris and then again in New York in 1980.  Agam is one of the highest selling, most well known Israeli artists.  His works are visually captivating to the viewer because they are not what people expect out of public art.