Yaacov Agam, the Israeli artist recognised as a founder of the kinetic art movement, has died aged 98, per jpost.com.
His family confirmed he died in Israel on Sunday, June 21.
His funeral will be held at Rehovot Cemetery at 5pm on Monday, June 22. His body will lie in state at the Yaacov Agam Museum of Art in Rishon LeZion from 2pm to 4pm.
Born Yaacov Gibstein in Rishon LeZion on May 11, 1928, Agam was the son of Rabbi Yehoshua Gibstein. As a teenager he was arrested by British authorities during the 1946 Black Sabbath raids and held for several months at Latrun detention camp.
He trained at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem under Mordecai Ardon, and later in Zurich with Bauhaus figure Johannes Itten, before moving to Paris in the 1950s, where he lived for decades.
Agam helped develop Op Art, a style using shapes and colour to create optical illusions. At 27, he exhibited kinetic wooden reliefs at the landmark Le Mouvement exhibition in Paris, alongside Marcel Duchamp, Jean Tinguely and Alexander Calder. His trademark works shifted in colour and form according to the viewer’s position.
He was awarded the Israel Prize for Visual Arts in 2026, the country’s highest cultural honour. The prize committee said he had broken the boundaries of traditional visual art while pioneering new languages in kinetic art.
His best-known public work in Israel was the Fire and Water Fountain in Tel Aviv’s Dizengoff Square, a kinetic sculpture combining colour, movement, water and music. It was later removed, restored, and returned without all its original elements.
Other major works in Israel include Jacob’s Ladder at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem, the colourful facade of the Dan Hotel in Tel Aviv, and Eighteen Levels at the Israel Museum. Internationally, he created works for the Élysée Palace in Paris and a musical fountain at La Défense.
His work was shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and in retrospectives at the Musée National d’Art Moderne, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam in 1973, and the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 1980.
Agam also developed the “Agamograph” display technique using Plexiglass, a visual education method for children, and designed the trophy presented at the 1999 Eurovision Song Contest in Jerusalem. He received the first prize for artistic research at the São Paulo Biennale in 1963, and was named a commander of France’s Order of Arts and Letters and a chevalier of the Legion of Honour.
In 2017, the Yaacov Agam Museum of Art opened in his hometown of Rishon LeZion, Israel’s first permanent institution dedicated to his work.
Culture and Sport Minister Miki Zohar said Agam was “a groundbreaking artist who gave Israeli creation a unique and inspiring language”, adding that his legacy would influence generations of creators.
Agam married Clila in Paris in 1954. She predeceased him. They had three children, including photographer Ron Agam and musician Oram Agam.
•Featured image: Yaacov Agam seen at the Agam Museum in Rishon LeZion, January 11, 2026/AVSHALOM SASSONI/FLASH90