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Friday, December 21, 1984 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Yaacov Agam's
sculpture and
paintings are ever
changing, flowing with
movement and light.
y
aacov Agam arranged,
re-arranged, then re-
arranged again several
heart-shaped pieces of
metal on the table in
front of him. After awhile, the 58-
year-old Israeli artist ran his hands
through his unuly, graying hair,
straightened his dark blue Christian
Dior necktie, tugged at his suit jacket,
then began to move the pieces of metal
about again. At times, in answer to a
question, his words were almost inau-
dible above the click and whir of a
camera in the room. Clearly, he was
not comfortable discussing himself.
What he wanted to talk about was his
work and, through it, what he is trying
to accomplish.
Around him, as he talked at Park
West Galleries in Southfield, a retros-
pective exhibition of his work was
being readied for a preview opening
Dec. 12. The preview, attended by over
1,000 patrons, benefitted Temple Is-
rael Brotherhood and the Michigan
Center for the Arts.
Agam touched the curved, heart-
shaped metal pieces again, so that
they began to rock gently back and
forth on the table. Then he moved
about once more, fashioning them into
yet another configuration. A small
group of people gathered around the
table, admiring his artistry. The
sculpture he calls "Beating Heart"
caught the light, seemed, for a mo-
ment, to be more liquid than solid.
"My art changes every minute,"
he said, his eyes on the sculpture. It is
the same thing, but it is not the same
thing. The most constant thing in life
is change. If there is no change, there
is no life. All art since pre-historic
times is still-life. But still-life is not
life."
Yaacov Agam's work is definitely
not still-life, but is, rather, a veritable
outburst of colors, shapes, and move-
ment. The approximately 100-piece
exhibit, "Movement in Bleu Space" (at
Park West Galleries to Jan. 31) re-
veals quickly why Agam's work is con-
sidered "kinetic art."
In the downstairs gallery, an
Agamograph (entitled "Counterpoint"
and priced at $2,700) is painted in
rainbow colors on a transparent, cor-
rugated surface. Looked at from one