Yaacov (Ron) Agam’s artwork plays with time and dimension. It constantly transforms and gleans inspiration from sources as diverse as religion and physics. The Israeli artist, who lives and works in Paris, is famed for his pioneering contributions to kinetic art. One of his pieces, The Heart of the Fountainhead, was unveiled in Taipei City.
It encompasses the exterior of Shuiyuan Market (水 源市場) near National Taiwan University, with rainbowcolored panels concealing air conditioners (which Agam refers to as “visual aggression”). The centerpiece is a giant mural facing Roosevelt Road (羅斯福路) that relies on audience participation to fully blossom.
From the left of the artwork, viewers see a blue and white grid, with ovals, circles and triangles sparsely interspersed throughout. From the right is a geometric rainbow that spirals into a white center. When shoppers enter the market from an overhead walkway, with the artwork above them, they see a carefully balanced mixture of the two compositions slowly dissolve into nine large prisms.
Agam was born in 1928 in Rishon LeZion, then part of British-administered Palestine. His father was an Orthodox Jewish rabbi and as a young boy Agam worried about his parent’s reaction to his budding interest in art. “It is written in the Bible not to do a graven image. The sixth commandment is not to kill, the eighth is not to steal and the second is not to make a graven image,” explains Agam.
The rabbi turned out to be supportive of his son’s passion, but Agam saw the second commandment as a challenge and inspiration to go beyond “static” paintings. He began to explore the possibilities of creating abstract artwork that was kinetic and had four — and even five or six — dimensions. Like The Heart of the Fountainhead, the images in Agam’s art shift in relation to the viewer. The fourth dimension in Agam’s paintings and sculpture is time: Agam seeks to both defy its limits and honor its passage.
For example, his sculptural installation Peaceful Communication With the World, created for last year’s World Games in Kaohsiung, is designed to change perspective as a child grows. Beating Heart, a small kinetic sculpture made of nesting metal rings that Agam carries with him, separates, undulates and quivers like a visual representation of sound waves; no movement is ever the same.
Judaism continues to influence Agam’s work, but his message is universal. When asked why he often uses rainbow colors, Agam repeats the story of Noah and the Ark. After the flood, God promised Noah never to destroy the earth again and placed a rainbow in the sky as a symbol of that covenant.
“It is a visual prayer of open peace, reminding that everyone is obligated to keep nature, to keep the environment, to keep peace, to keep love, to keep friendship, all the values that keep the world going,” says Agam. “If not, everything can be destroyed in a minute.”
His work has been displayed in museums around the world, including the Guggenheim Museum and Museum of Modern Art in New York City and the Musee National d’Art Moderne in Paris, but Agam sounds most proud when he talks of his public art, referring to traditional museums as “cemeteries of art.”
In additional to Peaceful Communication With the World and The Heart of the Fountainhead, his outdoor installations include the New Orleans Holocaust Memorial and fountains in Paris’ La Defense district and Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv. Agam also describes the Agam Method, an art education program he developed for young children, as the most important accomplishment of his life. “My artwork is part of life. Thousands of people can see it every day,” he says.
Shuiyuan Market is located at 92, Roosevelt Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市羅斯福路四段92號).
Current Oct/Nov 2022 Exhibition in Singapore
Bruno Art Group presents curated exhibitions of Israeli and International artists in its gallery locations and participates in international art fairs in U.S.A., Asia and Europe. Bruno Art Group was born out of the passion of its founder Motti Abramovitz in 1995, following a 100-year family tradition.
Bruno Art Group is dedicated to exhibiting works by groundbreaking modern and contemporary Israeli and international artists. The Bruno Gallery programme includes legendary pioneers of the Dada and Kinetic art movements such as Marcel Janco and Yaacov Agam.
Bruno Art Group actively works on the global art market positioning and supporting emerging artists and fosters the cultural exchange. Art Stage Singapore and Jakarta, KIAF Seoul Korea, Art Busan Korea, India Art Fair, MiArt Milan, Estampa Madrid, are just a few of the international fairs we participated in. Gallery Opening hours 10 AM to 8 PM, every day.
Read More about the Yaacov Agam Exhibition Here
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