About the Artist

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  • György Kepes. Self-Portrait. 1931. Gelatin silver print, c. 1937−40. 3 x 2.5" (7.62 x 6.35 cm). Courtesy Stephen Daiter Gallery. © Juliet Kepes Stone

    Born in Selyp, Hungary, in 1906, György Kepes made a name for himself as a painter, photographer, and educator. His father managed a farm estate before the family moved to Budapest, in 1914; Kepes’s childhood exposure to peasants’ poor working conditions later influenced the socially conscious themes in his artwork. From 1924 to 1928 he studied painting at Budapest’s Academy of Fine Arts and joined Lajos Kassák’s Munka (Work) circle of artist-activists, where he was introduced to Russian Constructivism. In 1930 he began working with László Moholy-Nagy in Berlin on commissions for opera stage designs, advertising, and graphic design. From 1935 to 1937 their collaboration continued in London, where Kepes met and married Juliet Appleby, a book designer. In 1937, at Moholy-Nagy’s invitation, the couple moved to Chicago, where Kepes directed the Light and Color Workshop at the New Bauhaus. At the New Bauhaus, and beginning in 1945 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he experimented widely with optics in photography, developed a curriculum to integrate science and art, and initiated large-scale public light installations. In 1967, at MIT, he founded the Center for Advanced Visual Studies, which he directed until his retirement in 1974.

    —Kelly Cannon

Meeting Points

Artist Chronology

October 4, 1906
Born
At location: György Kepes
Hatvan
1914–30
Lives in Budapest
At location: György Kepes
Budapest
1920s
Befriends Lajos Kassák and Robert Capa
At location: György Kepes
Budapest
1924–28
Studies at Budapest College of Fine Arts
At location: György Kepes
Budapest
1928
Joins Munka, a politically and artistically revolutionary group led by Lajos Kassák
At location: György Kepes
Budapest
1929
Begins making motion pictures
At location: György Kepes
Budapest
1930–31
György Kepes and László Moholy-Nagy work together creating film and stage products
Berlin
1934–35
Lives in Berlin
At location: György Kepes
Berlin
1936 through summer 1937
György Kepes works in László Moholy-Nagy's studio
London
October 1937 through 1943
Head of the light and color department at the New Bauhaus
At location: György Kepes
Chicago
October 23–November 7, 1937
Modern Hungarian Photography
Organizer: Imre Kinszki
Budapest
1939
First solo exhibition, at Katherine Kuh Gallery
Participant: György Kepes
Chicago
October 1941
Advance Guard of Advertising Artists at Katherine Kuh Gallery
Organizer: György Kepes
Chicago
1944
Publishes Language of Vision
Contributor: György Kepes
Chicago
1945–67
Teaches visual design at the Massachussett Institute of Technology's School of Architecture and Panning
At location: György Kepes
Cambridge
September 21–December 5, 1948
Collage at The Museum of Modern Art
New York
1967–72
Founds and directs the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
At location: György Kepes
Cambridge
December 29, 2001
Dies
At location: György Kepes
Cambridge

Walther Photographs

View this artist's works in MoMA's Online Collection

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