Internationally known Israeli artist Yaacov Agam died at the age of 98. A recipient of the Israel Prize, he began creating art at 12 and became one of Israel’s most prominent figures in the global art world. He lived in Paris for many years but continued to visit Israel, work, and teach there. He is survived by three children.
Agam was born Yaacov Gibstein in May 1928 in Rishon LeZion, to Rabbi Yehoshua Gibstein. In 1945, the British detained him for about eight months on suspicion of involvement in an underground movement. After his release, he studied at Bezalel in Jerusalem, then went to Zurich in 1949, where he encountered constructive art and Bauhaus ideas. He later moved to Paris, came into contact with surrealist artists, and also taught at Jewish Agency seminaries and later at academic institutions in Israel and the United States, including in California and at Harvard.
His best-known sculptural works began in the 1960s, especially the “Water and Fire” fountain in Dizengoff Square, removed when the square was lowered in 2016. He also created works for the Élysée Palace in Paris and the Dan Hotel in Tel Aviv. Art scholars described his work as combining Jewish kabbalistic imagery with abstraction and contrasting motifs that create synthesis.
Agam won numerous honors, including a Sao Paulo Biennale research prize in 1963, the Sandberg Prize from the Israel Museum in 1972, honorary citizenship of Alabama in 1976, and a UNESCO education prize in 1996. The article also notes that in 2012 his works were unexpectedly displayed at a Tehran art museum, after pieces had been transferred to Iranian officials in 1977, before the Islamic Revolution. His son Ron said the family had at times been hosted by Iran’s then royal family. Agam said in a Channel 12 interview that his works fit Muslim worldviews and should not be destroyed because they are culturally valuable. His body will lie in state at the Yaacov Agam Museum in Rishon LeZion on Monday, June 22, 2026, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., and his funeral will leave the military cemetery in Rehovot at 5 p.m. The shiva will be held at the Agam Museum on Mishar Street in Rishon LeZion.
