Agam

The other part of my Pompidou journey took me through a very fast tour of the permanent collection galleries, which I had not seen in a long time. I chose to run through the post 1960s area and was struck by a number of fantastic works from the somewhat nefarious artistic movements of the 1960s-1970s, by European artists who I was not familiar with previously. This installation (1972-1974) by the Israeli artist Yaacov Agam, who was born in 1928, was commissioned by and part of the Elysee Presidental Palace for then President Georges Pompidou. It includes carpet, zigzag patterned wall coverings, colored glass reflecting panels and a metal sculpture. When Valerie Giscard D'Estang took over, the piece was removed and given to the museum. This exact re-installation demonstrates that Pompidou must have had groovy tastes and probably had some fun parties.