20|21 Art: The Chicago Edition 
27 October 2023
20|21 Art: The Chicago Edition 
179

Yaacov Agam b.1928

The Ninth Power

1970-71
brass overall: 14 h × 17½ w × 15½ d in (36 × 44 × 39 cm) largest: 14 h × 14 w × 13½ d in (36 × 36 × 34 cm) smallest: 4¼ h × 4½ w × 4¾ d in (11 × 11 × 12 cm)
estimate: $3,000–5,000
result: $3,528
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This brass sculpture is a smaller version of Agam's monumental steel work, The Ninth Power and was acquired by Vera G. List from Galerie Denise René when she purchased the full-size model for the New School in New York.
provenance: Galerie Denise René, New York | Acquired from the previous in 1971 by Vera G. List | The Estate of Olga List and George S. Mack, Greenwich, CT

This work will ship from Lambertville, New Jersey.

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There are two distinct languages. There is the verbal, which separates people […] and there is the visual that is understood by everybody.

Yaacov Agam

The Collection of Olga List and George S. Mack

From a young age, Olga List was surrounded by the arts. Her mother, Vera List was a philanthropist whose causes included art, education and social justice. In 1996, Vera received the National Medal of Arts for her work which included establishing art-lending programs for students, creating the List Art Poster Program at the Lincoln Center, and helping Marcia Tucker establish the New Museum of Contemporary Art, among many other notable achievements. When her husband died, Vera donated works from their collection to several New York museums and sold others to help fund programming with missions for social change and education. Today, The Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School continues in her footsteps with a mission:

“to nurture, connect, and be a resource to diverse communities everywhere by catalyzing generative inquiry, creative practice, collaboration, knowledge, and cultural production focused on the intersection of art and politics.”

It is no surprise then, that Olga and her husband in turn collected art. Together, Olga List and George Mack amassed an incredible collection during their lifetimes. From works by Picasso and Henry Moore to Mary Bauermeister and Jim Dine, their collection included works by the most innovative and notable artists of the 20th century. Wright is honored to offer a selection from their estate here.  

Yaacov Agam b. 1928

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Born Yaacov Gipstein in 1928 in Rishon L'Zion, Palestine (now Israel), Yaacov Agam’s father was a rabbi and spiritual Kabbalist. He recalls being an inquisitive child, his first real experience with the arts was reading Irving Stone’s novel on Van Gogh, Lust for Life at the age of twelve. Agam embarked on his artistic studies in Jerusalem at the Bezalel Academy. He would later travel to Switzerland to study under the renowned color theorist Johannes Itten at Zürich’s Kunstgewerbe Schule. In 1951, Agam went to Paris and enrolled the Atelier d'art abstrait and at the Académie de la grande chaumière.

Agam’s first solo exhibition was at the Galerie Craven in Paris in 1953 titled Peintures en Mouvement (Paintings in Movement). In 1955 he participated in the seminal show Le Mouvemente at Galerie Denise René alongside other pioneering kinetic and artist including Alexander Calder, Jesús Rafael Soto and Carlos Cruz-Díez. While Agam was not the first Optical-Kinetic artist, his work encouraged viewer participation and utilized light and sound in ways that had not been seen before. One of his most well-known works titled Double Metamorphosis II is composed of nine-foot long strips of painted aluminum arranged so that the overall composition shifts as the viewer changes position. Agam’s unique style and large-scale interactive works are particularly well suited for public spaces, and the artist has completed numerous civic commissions and monuments.

In 1971, Agam had his first retrospective at Musée National d’Art Moderne in Paris followed by a second in 1980 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. His work is included in numerous public and private collections around the world including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Santa Barbara Museum of Art and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington D.C. In 2017 The Yaacov Agam Museum of Art opened in the artist’s home-town of Rishon LeZion, housing the largest collection of his art in the world. Today, Agam lives and works in Paris.

Auction Results Yaacov Agam

Yaacov Agam

Continuity

estimate: $150,000–250,000

result: $237,500

Yaacov Agam

Magic Rain

estimate: $60,000–90,000

result: $137,500

Yaacov Agam

Untitled

estimate: $8,000–12,000

result: $68,750

Yaacov Agam

Continuity (Transformable painting, circular)

estimate: $30,000–50,000

result: $50,000

Yaacov Agam

Untitled

estimate: $20,000–30,000

result: $43,750

Yaacov Agam

Strocture a Double Metamorphose

estimate: $15,000–20,000

result: $33,750

Yaacov Agam

Untitled (Construction)

estimate: $700–900

result: $21,420

Yaacov Agam

Vibralite

estimate: $20,000–30,000

result: $18,750
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