End to End

Israeli artist Yaacov Agam has been praised for introducing, according to Sayako Aragaki, "the notion of time and movement in art" and challenging "the accepted idea of the fixed image." His pioneering work in optic and kinetic art began in Paris, France, with his 1951 exhibition, Paintings in Movement, a show that shocked spectators because the "paintings" were not relegated to two dimensions.
Born in 1928 to an orthodox rabbi in the former British colony of Palestine, the teenage Agam broke away from his small town and the orthodoxy of his family to attend Jerusalem's Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design. There he worked under the tutelage of Mordechai Ardon, a former student of the Weimar Bauhaus.
Since Agam's artistic debut and later anointment as the "father of kinetic art," his work has been shown in major exhibitions at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and the Art Institute of Chicago. His works can also be seen beyond the walls of museums. His famous designs include the ceiling mural, Jacob's Ladder, in Jerusalem's convention center; the Parisian musical fountain, La Defense, which features a surrounding pool made of polymorphic mosaic surface; and the Los Angeles-based Mondrian Hotel's entire building facade. Yaacov Agam has also received numerous awards and recognition throughout his career including the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et Lettres in 1974 and the UNESCO Prize for Education in 1996 for his "didactic plan for combining art and science." Because he was a close friend of Herman Spertus, Spertus Institute holds a sizeable collection of important works by Agam.