Yaacov Agam

Yaacov Agam was born in 1928 in Rishon LeZion

Yaacov Gibstein, later Agam, was born in Rishon LeZion in 1928. His father, Yehoshua Gibstein, was a rabbi and a kabbalist. As a child he studied in a heder.

He studied art at Bezalel in Jerusalem under Mordecai Ardon. In 1946 the British arrested him in the Black Sabbath roundups, and he spent several months in the Latrun camp. In 1949 he moved to Zurich and studied under Johannes Itten.

In 1951 he settled in Paris, where he held his first solo show in 1953. His abstract works often change with the viewer's position and use movement, light and sound. He developed the Agamograph print and created public works such as the Fire and Water Fountain in Tel Aviv and a fountain at La Défense in Paris.

He had retrospectives in Paris and at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. He designed the winner's trophy for the 1999 Eurovision Song Contest in Jerusalem. A museum dedicated to his work opened in Rishon LeZion.

He was married to Clila, and they had three children. His second wife was the harpist Chantal Thomas d'Hoste. He received the Israel Prize in 2026 and died at his home in Rishon LeZion that year.