| Yaacov Agam | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Yaacov Agam What comes to mind when one thinks of Kinetic Art? Is it the fourth dimension, time, or is it the father of Kinetic Art, Yaacov Agam? Agam was an extremely brilliant man. He was not well educated yet he was a wonderful artist. Yaacov Agam was born in Rishon Lezion, now in Israel, in 1928. His father was Rabbi Yehoshua Gipstein and his mother was Kendel Pombrovski. His father was an orthodox Jew and observed all the holidays and Shabbats; he spent almost everyday studying the torah. Monday, Thursday, and Saturday Agam's dad spent his time in the synagogue On Saturday he dragged Yaacov along with him, even though Agam disliked going. Young Agam sincerely loved to draw freely and he spent much of the time he was drawing, drawing lines. Agam's father was given a job in Chicago, but instead went to Palestine (Israel). Since Gipstein was not a Jewish name, Yaacov's father changed their name to Agam. One day his dad died on a Saturday, at sunset, when he walked into his synagogue. Everyone believed that he died a holy death, and only the most religious men died at that time. By the time Agam was a young adult, about 13-14, he lived on a kibbutz called Yad Mordekhay. One day Agam was in shock walking home from school, he witnessed Arabs attacking a bus full of Jewish civilians. At the age of 17 he was arrested because he was caught in a Jewish underground, a hiding place for Jews during World War II. While in jail he drew a famous card, it had a picture of a man sitting on a jail bed. It was later switched around and was made to be a New Year's card. After a while, when Yaacov Agam was about 17-18 his older brother found him a school in Jerusalem, it was a superb art school named Bezalel Academy. His teachers saw how unique Agam's artwork was. He was so remarkable that he soon received a job as an art teacher at a Jewish Elementary School. He was then offered a job in America. On his way he stopped in Paris and didn't want to leave. He stayed in Paris and studied painting and sculptures in churches, museums, and anywhere else he saw art. Agam then traveled the rest of Europe. In a city called Zurich, Switzerland he studied the art closely. He thought of it as old art, and wondered what new art should be. That is when he started to think, maybe a new art should be invented. Agam soon found a job in Paris; he worked in a small studio. He became well known and many companies asked him to paint pieces for them. Around this time Agam discovered the style he would later invent, Kinetic Art. He would take his oil paints and canvas and paint. He would draw a picture and one could see three or four images at different times in the same picture. For example, if someone looked strait at it, they would see one image and if one were to look at the picture from one side they would see a different image than if one looked at it from the other side. Yaacov Agam made several wonderful works. He drew and created sculptures for hundreds of people and companies. One of his most famous kinetic works is Transparent Rhythmus II, in the collection of the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington DC. One of his first two works that are Kinetic are Monochrome Blue and Rhythm Polymorph, both at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Yaacov has been known for his Kinetic Art, but he, but he was also well known for his sculptures and designs. An amazing design of his is the Multi Stage Theater, it has four stages surrounding the audience, front and back. The chairs aren't in strait lines, but instead are arched, and can turn in all directions allowing the audience to see what is happening on all the stages. Agam got the idea of the theater from his most famous style, Kinetic Art. You couldn't see all the stages at the same time, just like you couldn't see all the images in his artwork at the same time. The special plays that were made for this theater were great hits. He also designed hotels; one of them is the Dan Hotel in Tel Aviv, Israel. However not only did he design hotels, he also designed a room for the former French President, in Elysee Palace, it was completely kinetic, the walls, floors, tables and chairs were even kinetic. Later, another President came about, the President believed that the room should not be limited to people in the palace, hence he had the whole room moved to the Museum of Arts in Paris. Besides designing rooms and hotels, Agam also designed the center of a plaza in Paris, the magnificent Defense Complex Plaza, and the design was called Monumental Fountain. In the Plaza there were 60 water jet streams, 5 flowered ones (called so because when water comes out it looks like a flower). It is controlled by a computer and has music in the background. It is 160 feet long and 75 feet wide. On the backside there is a mosaic surface with over 90 different colors. Agam has created hundreds of magnificent sculptures. One of them is Wings of the Heart, outside of JFK Airport. It was put there to welcome people to America. Agam stated, `` In olden days people came to America by boat, and the Statue of Liberty was their welcoming, now people come by plane, and the Wings of the Heart sculpture welcomes them." Another sculpture Agam created is the Memorial Flames; it is in memory of the 6 million Jews that died during the Holocaust. It stands on the roof of the Haidra Rabbahy Yeshivah, which is near the Western Wall in Jerusalem. The words Yiscor (In Hebrew) are written in between two pieces of glass. There are other pieces of glass that look like candles; on top of each piece of glass is a Jewish star. A Torah Ark and Mantel are in between two separate sheets of glass. One more famous sculpture is the Star of Peace. It too is in kinetic style. It was given to Begin (former Jewish President), Jimmy Carter (former US President), and Sadat (former President of Egypt); it was given to them for negotiating for peace. Agam designed the sculpture very well. On one side was the Islam star and on the other side the Jewish Star was seen. None of the stars bigger then the other. Then from another view they fused together to create one magnificent star. Agam achieved many outstanding rewards; not only medals but he also had the honor of meeting many important people. He won the prize for Artistic Research in 1963 and also received the Paletee d'or award at a festival. In addition to receiving many awards, he was the first person to have a one-man exhibition. He, along with his best friend Yves Klien convinced a museum to allow them to exhibit only their projects. It was called " L'Object". Although Agam may have had many achievements, he had some hardships as well. His artworks were so outstanding that some people copied his style and called it their own. Of course Agam protested and won the argument, so the works that were disposed of. Although Agam's works were often sold to different people, his first large sale was to a British man named Walter Annenberg. The first sale to him was the painting called Square Waves. When Annenberg saw it in a museum, he insisted on taking it right away. Even though the museum said to wait until the exhibit was over, he still took it. Agam made a few more paintings for Annenberg; most of them are at his summerhouse in Palm Springs, but others are at his home in Philadelphia. Agam met many artists in Paris, but only one became his best friend. His name was Alexander Calder. Together they created a work of art combining each other's styles. In addition to meeting Calder, Agam met someone else he became very close to. This person Agam loved very much. Her name was Cilla Lusternik and they married in 1956. Their first son was born in 1958. They also had another 2 sons and a daughter. Yaacov Agam is currently living in New York. He is 80 years old and has several grandchildren. However, some believe Agam is insane and feel that he should be committed to a mental institute. They may believe this, because many artists have been known to go insane. On the other hand other people believe that Agam should continue painting, even though he is aging. All in all the majority of people who have heard of Agam have faith that he will forever be a great Jewish artist. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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