At 80, Yaacov Agam continues developing his artwork and creative ideas. He is contributing to an Agam museum in Rishon LeZion, his birthplace, and continuing to create Agamographs that feature rainbows and Jewish symbolism. Agam is also celebrating the success in Israel of his Agam Smarts program, a collection of activities for preschool aged children that is intended to strengthen visual and memory skills.
The celebrated Israeli artist, who turned 80 last month, is focused on preserving his legacy of great public works and building an eponymous museum in his birthplace, Rishon LeZion. Agam is set in his ways and topics he wants to discuss, and he hires the same French-speaking limousine driver whenever he visits the United States.
But that would be a superficial dismissal of the artist, who like his surname, the Hebrew word for “lake,” shimmers with infinite ideas beneath the surface.
For starters, he says, “I don’t feel 80. And anyway, 80 in the Talmud corresponds to strength.”
