Yaacov Agam

(Israeli, born 1928)

Yaacov Agam is an Israeli artist best known for his pioneering of Kinetic Art. Employing light and sound to provide a unique sensorial experience for the viewer, Agam melded formalism and mysticism. His lenticular prints, or Agamographs, made illusory images appear depending on the audience’s viewpoint. “My intention was to create a work of art which would transcend the visible, which cannot be perceived except in stages, with the understanding that it is a partial revelation and not the perpetuation of the existing,” he explained of his work. “My aim is to show what can be seen within the limits of possibility which exists in the midst of coming into being.” Born Yaacov Gipstein on May 11, 1928 in Rish-le-Zion, Palestine (now Israel), Agam studied in Jerusalem, Zürich, and Paris. While attending Zürich’s Kunstgewerbe Schule, Agam studied under the renowned color theorist Johannes Itten, before moving to Paris in 1951. Agam has gone on to become the subject of retrospectives at the Musée National d’Art Moderne in Paris in 1972, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York in 1980. The artist currently lives and works in Paris, France. His works are included in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, among others.