It was difficult to decide what artist to feature this month that would fit with a Hamlet or otherwise mystery theme. Finally, I decided on this artist for the types of works he creates. They are like nothing I have ever seen before.
Yaacov Agam pioneered this new form of art which has been termed Kinetic Art. His art is one in which viewers have to participate in it because it looks different from every angle. Agam has become one of the most influential modern artists.
When first creating this artwork, Agam said this to describe what he had created: "These are a new medium and no word has yet been found to describe them. They move from a three-dimensional image into a four-dimensional image with the addition of the viewer's temporal experience. The passage of time is required to perceive the artwork."
While we will be talking about some of his pieces here, I highly recommend that if you ever get a chance to see his pieces in person to take it because the pictures do not do the art justice at all since they can only capture one angle.
The first piece I would like to discuss is Fading Star. You can see five images below, but they are all actually of the same painting, just taken at slightly different angles. The middle image shows what the painting looks like straight on. The two images next to the middle show what the image looks like at a slight right or left angle. And the outside two show what the image looks like from a bigger angle. Just look at how the color changes depending on how you look at the piece. There are infinite other angles to consider as well so this is just giving you a small glimpse into all the possibilities of what you can see in this image. This is also one of his more subtle changes. Below you will see two of his more elaborate changes.
Next up we have Today/Yesterday. In this one, you can see that the two heaviest angles are identical. The two slight angles are mostly identical. The middle image has a different image from all of them. In all of these though you can still see the layers from the other angles.
After that we have Galaxy. Look at how all the images change. The image all the way on the left looks to be focusing on dots, and the one next to it is squares. The middle one seems to have everything in it. The one to the right of that seems to have the squiggles in the forefront, and the rightmost one looks like the left.
I just wanted to end with this image. This one is called Sun and Moon Romance. Rather than taking a picture of what it looks like from each angle, I wanted to show you what one of his pieces looks like from a distance.
And before I leave you, I also leave you with a video interview with the artist in which you can see him moving his artwork so you can see exactly how the angles work. (If you want to listen to what he says too, I would recommend using closed captions since his accent can be somewhat difficult to understand.)
So what did you think of this artist and style?
See you all in the next issue!