Yaccov Agam
Heart and Rainbow (Heart and Rainbow Series)
1984
Lithograph, 26/200
(Israel, 1928)
Yaacov Agam was born in Israel in 1928. he studied at the Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem in 1946, and from 1951 in Paris at the Atelier d’Art Abstrait and at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere. Agam’s early work was primarily influenced by artists such as Kandinsky and Max bill as well as the Bauhaus ideas. Between 1951 and 1953 his work was comprised of a series of “Contrapuntal and Transformable Pictures”, such as “Transformable Relief”. He held his first one-man exhibition at the Galerie Craven in Paris in 1953. Agam was one of the first optical-kinetic artist that encouraged viewer participation in such a direct manner.
In the “Transformable Pictures”, the viewer could arrange the elements by plugging them into holes, activating them manually or through sound. Agam’s “Contrapuntal” and later related works are both optical and kinetic in their effects. They are composed of a grid of painted strips that contain contrasting designs on opposite sides so that when viewed from the left or right a distinct pattern
takes shape. These patterns merge, change, and dissolve as the viewer passes from one side of the work to another, conveying the impression of movement and changing color.
The kinetic wall sculpture in the Cedars Sinai Collection (near the piano in the main lobby on plaza level), entitled “Mazor” and dated 1988 embodies Agam’s mastery of optical and kinetic techniques.
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