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Israeli Artist Yaacov Agam Dies at 98
Yaacov Agam, recognized as a founder of the kinetic art movement, died Sunday at age 98. His funeral is scheduled for Monday at Rehovot Cemetery.
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Israeli artist Yaacov Agam died Sunday at the age of 98. He was known internationally as one of the founders of the kinetic art movement. Agam was born Yaacov Gibstein in Rishon Lezion on May 11, 1928. His work combined color, movement, light, and viewer engagement, often creating pieces that changed appearance based on the viewer's position.
His funeral will take place Monday at Rehovot Cemetery at 5:00 p.m. His body will lie in state at the Agam Museum in Rishon Lezion from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Agam received the Israel Prize for Visual Arts in 2026.
The prize committee cited his contributions to kinetic art and Op Art. His best-known Israeli work was the Fire and Water Fountain in Tel Aviv's Dizengoff Square. Other public installations include Jacob's Ladder at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem and the façade of the Dan Hotel in Tel Aviv.
Agam studied at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem and later in Zurich and Paris. His work appeared in exhibitions at the Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Centre Pompidou. The Yaacov Agam Museum of Art opened in Rishon Lezion in 2017.
He received international honors including the São Paulo Biennale first prize in 1963 and French orders of merit. "My aim is to show the visible as possibility in a state of perpetual becoming," Agam said in a widely referenced quote.
