YAACOV AGAM

versión en español

"Beating Beating Heart", 1988 Elements: 49 x 45 x 19 cms. Base: 72 x 72 x 18 cms. Nine gold-plated brass elements and computer-generated electronic animation system

The use of a wide variety of mediums to express his ideas is, in the opinion of Sayako Aragaki, one of Agam's defining characteristics. Since his tactile and transformable works and polymorph paintings (emblematic of his style) in the 1950s, Agam has remained faithful to experimentation by investigating the possibilities of new media, driven by his desire to go beyond the limits of the second and third dimensions and to introduce the fourth one - time. With this he attempts to surpass the static character of an artwork and to achieve a reflection of reality which is continuous and in a perpetual process of change and transformation, and an expression that is plastic and visual and in accordance with the Hebraic concept. According to Fernando Castro Florez, Yaacov Agam is one of the decisive figures in a field of aesthetics in which communication, emotional and intellectual contradiction and the realization of a festive state of mind are prized. Castro Florez adds that since Agam's transformable, tactile and polymorph paintings there has been an admirable journey towards multi-dimensionality in which new experiences can be created such as those that involve the use of video and tele-art, works which entail the transcendence of the object and which create situations (visual communication) or in other words, new visions of reality. The variety of mediums with which Agam uses in order to express his ideas won him in 1963 the Prize for Artistic Research in the Biennial of São Paulo, an award invented by the judges when faced with the impossibility of defining the character of his work: painting or sculpture. More recently, in 1989, Agam received the Grand Prize of ARTECH for art and technology at the International Biennial of Nagoya (Japan) for "Visual Music Orchestration", a work which shows 45,000 different images in a 20 minute programme. Each image is split into 16 independent monitors and each one, in harmony with the others, transmits a kind of visual music which allows, when combined, the creation of an unified image. Yaacov Agam is an internationally recognized and prize winning artist: several places in the United States (Borough of New York, District of Colombia, San Francisco, Miami Beach, etc.) have celebrated "Agam Days"; his work is represented in the most important museums and collections of the world; and his enormous, kinetic, mural paintings can be seen on buildings in the United States and Israel (the Mondrian Hotel of Los Angeles, Dan Hotel of Tel Aviv, and the Villa Regina Complexe of Miami). He was also awarded the Jan Amos Comenine Medal 1996 from the UNESCO for the Agam Method for visual education of young children.

"Dybbuk", 1945-55 42 x 47,7 cms. Wood / cork / oils / mobile elements   "Hommage aux Pyramides" ("Hommage to the Pyramids"), 1969-70 26,9 x 26,9 x 26,9 cms. Plexiglass and electronics   "Hommage aux Pyramides" ("Hommage to the Pyramids"), 1969-70 26,9 x 26,9 x 26,9 cms. Plexiglass and electronics   "Rosh Hashanah (New Year)", 1967-68 45 x 54 cms. Oils / aluminum relief Three views from different angles of the same painting