Yaacov Agam, one of Israel’s most influential and groundbreaking artists, has died at the age of 98. He lived in Paris for many years but continued to visit Israel, create work and teach there. Agam, who won major accolades throughout his career, was also named an Israel Prize laureate for 2026, and he leaves behind three children.
Born Yaacov Gibstein in May 1928 in Rishon LeZion, he was the son of Rabbi Yehoshua Gibstein. He began drawing at age 12 after reading Irvin Stone’s “The Agony and the Ecstasy,” according to interviews he gave. In 1945, the British detained him for about eight months on suspicion of belonging to an underground movement. After his release, he studied at Bezalel in Jerusalem, then called Bezalel New School, and in 1949 moved to Zurich, where he encountered constructivist art and the Bauhaus movement.
He later moved to Paris and came into contact with Surrealist artists, while also working as a teacher at a Jewish Agency seminary. He went on to lecture at academic institutions in Israel, including Yavne and the Weizmann Institute, and in the United States, including the Academy of the Hebrew in California and Harvard. His best-known sculptures began appearing in the 1960s.
Art historians described Agam’s work as combining Jewish-Kabbalistic imagery with abstract forms and a wide range of artistic influences, especially opposites that merge into synthesis. Among his best-known works were the fountain “Water and Fire” in Dizengoff Square, later removed when the square was lowered in 2016, the “Agam Salon” for the Élysée Palace in Paris, and the facade of the Dan Hotel in Tel Aviv. He received numerous honors, including a 1963 art research prize from the São Paulo Biennial, the 1972 Sandberg Prize from the Israel Museum, honorary citizenship of Alabama in 1976, and a UNESCO education prize in 1996.
In 2012, Agam’s works were unexpectedly reported on display at Tehran’s art museum. His son Ron said the pieces had been handed to senior Iranian officials in 1977, when the family was in Iran before the Islamic Revolution. Agam later said, “I think my works also suit the Muslim worldview,” and added that he did not believe they would be destroyed because they are culturally valuable. His body will lie in state at the Agam Museum in Rishon LeZion on Monday, June 22, 2026, from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., his funeral will depart from the military cemetery in Rehovot at 5:00 p.m., and the shiva will be held at the Agam Museum on Mishar Street 1 in Rishon LeZion.
