Yaacov Agam

Los Angeles, Hebrew Union College, Skirball Museum, Agam in Los Angeles, October-Novemeber 1973, illustrated as part of the exhibition

Agam in Los Angeles, exhibition catalogue, Los Angeles, 1973, illustrated p. 11

The supporting metal base is rusted and will require replacement. The swivelling arms have some minor surface dirt but there are no visible stains or serious scratches. The metal sleeve that covers the base has recently been cleaned and is in generally good condition.
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Yaacov Agam is internationally recognized as one of the pioneers in kinetic sculpture. In the catalogue for his 1980 Guggenheim Museum exhibition, Serge Lemoine discusses similar works from this period and notes: "All of Agam's sculptures are based on the same principle, the repetition of elementary geometric forms, or rather, 'elementarist' forms, to use Theo Van Doesburg's terminology... These shapes are either the same or similar and in regular geometric progression, sometimes multiplied by two in a progression onto the ground, like a reflection. And they are movable whether around their own axis or around an off-center axis or simply on their own. And these lines, shifted, modified, changed, mounted ten to twenty meters high in the toughness and the brilliance of their polished stainless metal, encircle portions of space and create virtual volumes. The arrangements of these volumes may vary infinitely and they can be completely disturbed by a simple movement. So it is that Agam uses the maximum of simplicity to attain, through movement, the maximum of diversity."  (Serge Lemoine, "Agam's Movement" in Homage to Yaacov Agam, exhibition catalogue, New York, Solomon H. Guggenheim Museum, 1980, p. 88 and 92)