An untitled silkscreen by Yaacov Agam.
When I was a kid, it was rare to see original art in someone’s private home. The parents of my best friend Kevin – 50 years later, my partner in the company that owns this site and several others – went to Israel. Mel and Susan came back with a ton of stories and two giant colorful works by the kinetic artist Yaacov Agam.
I call them “works” because they weren’t exactly paintings and they weren’t exactly sculptures. And if you know Agam’s stuff, you know that that was typical of his always colorful, always electrified three-dimensional artwork. They were hard to even photograph.
Agam died today at 98, just a few years after winning the Israel Prize, the nation‘s highest honor for visual arts.
He was born in Rishon LeZion in mandatory Palestine and studied in Jerusalem under Mordecai Ardon, who had himself learned alongside Wassily Kandinsky, and Paul Klee. Agam was arrested in 1946 by the British as part of what became known as Operation Agatha, meant to snuff out Jewish insurgents. Following the Black Sabbath round-up, the Brits threw Agam in the Latrun detention camp for several months.
Ron Agam is the eldest son of Yaacov Agam. Photographed in Miami Dec. 1, 2022, Ron is a visual artist who favors bright colors, just like the old man. (Photo: Ken Kurson for Fine Art Globe)
After that, Agam moved to Europe, mostly France, and didn’t have as much to do with Israel as one would expect from someone whose art has become synonymous with the Jewish state.
A couple years ago, my wife and I went to a party at his son’s studio in Miami. Ron Agam is also a very talented visual artist, and also prone to bright vivid colors, both in his paintings and his eyewear. One of the displays featured several photographs and Judaica that depicted the artist with his father. It was moving to see and reminded me of my own young days looking at Kevin‘s parents’ works on the wall.
Back then, in the late 70s, we felt incredible pride to walk around our neighborhood, holding a little pishke meant for coins to bolster Israel’s chances of survival. We’d knock on our neighbors’ doors to see if they wanted to support the young state or pay us a quarter a mile in the Walk for Israel. Today it would be foolish to ask your neighbors to help Israel, probably even dangerous.
But it shouldn’t be dangerous to make beautiful art, and that’s what this guy did for almost 100 years.
Some photos that feature father and son and a legacy of art and Judaica. (Photo: Ken Kurson for Fine Art Globe)
Ken Kurson
Ken Kurson is the founder of the Globe suite of sites. Kurson was editor in chief of the New York Observer from 2013 -2017, and in 2014, Algemeiner magazine named Ken Kurson Journalist of the Year. Ken is the author of several books and the founder of Green Magazine.