Artist: Yaacov Agam 1928-     Israel

Suite of 4 Lithographs Hand Signed in Pencil and Numbered

Title:"Lines and Forms"

Hors De Commerce (HC) prints. Edition of 27 

HC # 8/27 (all four)

Signed by Agam in pencil

Never mounted , never framed

Sheet size: Three are 10" H x 13" W, One is 13" H x 10" W

Image size: Varies

Condition: Excellent, Mint Condition. 

Note: To assure the prints remain pristine the photos were taken in their protective plastic sleeves causing light reflections. 

Provenance: Ashkenazy Galleries; Martin Lawrence

Limited Editions 1984 Blind Stamp (in bottom left corners)

Note: Hors De Commerce, HC prints, are very similar to Artist Proofs except they are only available through the artist directly. The artist gives them away as gifts or sells them. They are valued as Artist Proofs, or higher, since they are even more rare.

Biography

Yaakov Agam was born Yaakov Gipstein on 11 May 1928 in Rishon LeZion, thenMandate Palestine. His father, Yehoshua Gibstein, was a rabbi and a kabbalist.^[1]

Agam trained at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem, before moving to Zürich, Switzerland in 1949, where he studied under Johannes Itten (1888-1967) at the Kunstgewerbe Schule, and was also influenced by the painter and sculptor Max Bill (1908-1994). In 1951 Agam went toParis, France, where he still lives.^[2] He has a daughter and two sons, one of whom is the photographer Ron Agam.^[3]

[edit]Artistic career

Fountain at La Défense in Paris, France

Fountain in Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv, Israel

Agam's first solo exhibition was at the Galerie Graven in 1953, and he exhibited three works at the 1954 Salon des Réalités Nouvelles.^[4] He established himself as one of the leading pioneers of kinetic art at the Le Mouvement exhibition at the Galerie Denise René in 1955, alongside such artists as Jesús Rafael Soto, Carlos Cruz-Díez, Pol Bury, Alexander Calderand Jean Tinguely.

In 1964, Agam wrote his artistic credo, unchanged since then. “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. My aim is to show what can be seen within the limits of possibility which exists in the midst of coming into being.”^[5]

Agam's work is usually abstract, kinetic art, with movement, viewer participation and frequent use of light and sound. His works are placed in many public places. His best known pieces include "Double Metamorphosis III" (1965), "Visual Music Orchestration" (1989) and fountains at the La Défense district in Paris (1975) and the "Fire and Water Fountain" in the Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv (1986). He is also known for a type of print known as an Agamograph, which uses lenticular printing to present radically different images, depending on the angle from which it is viewed. The lenticular technique was executed in large scale in the 30' x 30' (9.14 M x 9.14 M) "Complex Vision" (1969) which adorns the facade of the Callahan Eye Foundation Hospital inBirmingham, Alabama.^[6]

Agam had a retrospective exhibition in Paris at the Musée National d'Art Moderne in 1972, and at theGuggenheim Museum in New York in 1980, among others. His works are held in numerous museum collections including the Museum of Modern Art ^[7] and the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum.^[8]

He is the subject of two documentary films by American filmmaker Warren Forma: "Possibilities of Agam" (1967) and "Agam and..." (1980).

In 1996 he was awarded the Jan Amos Comenius Medal by UNESCO for the “Agam Method” for visual education of young children.

In 1999 he designed and created the winner's trophy for the Eurovision Song Contest which was held inJerusalem.

In 2005, he was voted the 195th-greatest Israeli of all time, in a poll by the Israeli news website Ynet to determine whom the general public considered the 200 Greatest Israelis.^[9]

In 2009, at age 81, Agam created a monument for the World Games in Kaohsiung, Taiwan titled “Peaceful Communication with the World”. It consists of nine 10m high hexagon pillars positioned in diamond or square formation. The sides of the pillars are painted in different patterns and hues, totaling more than 180 shades. One side of each pillar is also lined to segment the structure into sections, so that children's perception of the pillar will change as they grow, because they will see a different pillar at a different height.^[10]

One of Agam's more notable creations is the Hanukkah Menorah at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 59th Street in New York City, sponsored by the Lubavitch Youth Organization. The 32-foot-high, gold colored, 4,000 pound steel structure is recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the World's Largest Hanukkah Menorah. It uses real oil lamps, which are lighted every year during Hanukkah, with the aid of cherry-picking machines.^[11]

Agam is one of the highest selling Israeli artists. In a Sotheby's New York auction in November 2009, when his “4 Themes Contrepoint” was sold for $326,500, he said: “This does not amaze me ... My prices will go up, in keeping with the history I made in the art world.” A year later, his “Growth”, an outsize kinetic painting done in oil on a wood panel, which was shown at the 1980 retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum, estimated at $150,000 to $250,000, sold for the record-breaking sum of $698,000.^[12]

[edit]References

1. ^ "At 80, Yaakov Agam still vibrant with his artwork and other ideas". JTA. June 5, 2008. Retrieved December 22, 2010.
2. ^ Avraham Ronen (July 16, 1998). "Agam Reconsidered". The Israel Review of Arts and Letters 1996/103. Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs' website.
3. ^ Haim Handwerker (August 24, 2009). "Dusty Memories". Haaretz. Retrieved December 22, 2010.
4. ^ Michel Ragon (1975) (in french). Agam: 54 mots cles pour une lecture polyphonique d'Agam. Georges Fall. p. 7.OCLC 2876738.
5. ^ Morris Shapiro (October 13, 2010). "Yaacov Agam—21st Century Genius". Park West Gallery. Retrieved December 22, 2010.
6. ^ "Callahan Eye Foundation Hospital". Retrieved December 22, 2010.
7. ^ Yaacov Agam (1975). "Coordination II, Screenprint". The Collection, MOMA. Retrieved December 22, 2010.
8. ^ Yaacov Agam (1974). "Portfolio Suite 3, Screenprint". Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum. Retrieved December 22, 2010.
9. ^ גיא בניוביץ' (June 20, 1995). "הישראלי מספר 1: יצחק רבין – תרבות ובידור". Ynet. Retrieved July 10, 2011.
10. ^ Jenny W. Hsu (February 24, 2009). "Agam Installation Exemplifies Peace for Upcoming Kaohsiung World Games". The Taipei Times. Retrieved December 22, 2010.
11. ^ Pamela Skillings,. "Hanukkah Events In New York City". About.com. Retrieved December 22, 2010.
12. ^ Avital Burg (December 20, 2010). "Art work by Israel's Yaacov Agam sells for record-breaking sum in N.Y. In an auction organized by Sotheby's, 'Growth' sets a new high for sales price received by any Israeli artist in history". Haaretz. Retrieved December 22, 2010.

[edit]Bibliography

• Sayako Aragaki (2007). Agam. Beyond the Visible (3 ed.). Gefen Publishing House, Jerusalem/New York. ISBN 9789652294050.
• Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (1980). Homage to Yaacov Agam. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum exhibition. Leon Amiel, New York. ISBN 9780814807514.
• Frank Popper (1968). Origins and Development of Kinetic Art. Studio Vista and New York Graphic Society.
• Frank Popper (1990). Yaacov Agam (3 ed.). H.N. Abrams, New York. ISBN 9780810918979.

[edit]External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:Yaacov Agam

• Works by or about Yaacov Agam in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• "Yaacov Agam's Bio". Yaacov Agam's Fine Art.
• Avraham Ronen (July 16, 1998). "Agam Reconsidered". The Israel Review of Arts and Letters 1996/103. Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs' website.
• "Collection of Agamographs". Masterworks Fine Art.

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