The Agam Art Museum

Yaacov Agam is one of the most renowned Israeli artists of all time. His paintings, exhibited all over the world, both defy and define kinetic art with his signature approach using bold colors and shapes. Agam was born in Rishon Lezion in what was then Mandate Palestine and though he moved to Zurich and then Paris, a large collection of his art found a permanent home in the place of his birth outside of Tel Aviv. This is the only museum in the world that is dedicated to art in motion.

The recently-opened museum is one-of-a-kind in the way the visitor views the paintings. In most museums, one stands in front of a painting and then moves on. In the Agam Museum, you must view the work from at least several different angles and even then, you will not see everything that the artist fashioned to speak to you. With all his work, Agam shows us that the most constant thing in life is change.

Though Agam’s art is very modern, it expresses an ancient concept of the Jewish people. According to Agam, the whole concept of Judaism is the flow of time and the unexpected. His philosophy is that time, by definition, cannot be repeated and its events are unexpected. He uses this Jewish notion of the unanticipated in his art. His museum is dedicated to the notion of seeing the world in a different way, as Judaism—with its linear and progressive view of time, from creation through development to redemption—broke with previous beliefs in a cyclical, repetitive view of man in time.

The building’s structure is as interesting as its contents and reflects Agam’s artistic concept. This is not a museum that one should walk through without explanation. Be sure to arrange a guided tour ahead of time in order to truly appreciate Agam’s genius. We guarantee that an excursion to Israel’s newest museum will be well worth the time spent.