Background
Gyorgy Kepes was born on October 4, 1906 in Selyp, Hungary. He was a son of Ferene and Ilona (Fai) Kepes.
Gyorgy Kepes was born on October 4, 1906 in Selyp, Hungary. He was a son of Ferene and Ilona (Fai) Kepes.
At age eighteen, he enrolled at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest.
In 1937 Kepes came to the United States to join Moholy-Nagy at the New Bauhaus in Chicago- later the Institute of Design - where he headed the Light and Color Department. Since 1946 he has been at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was director emeritus of the Center for Advanced Visual Studies. For a time he was editor of Visual Arts Today.
In 1944, he published Language of Vision, an influential book about design and design education. Widely used for many years as a college textbook (it had thirteen printings, in four languages).
In his lifetime, Kepes produced other books of lasting importance, among them Graphic Forms: Art as Related to the Book (1949); Arts of Environment (1972); and The Visual Arts Today (1960). He was also a prolific painter and photographer, and his work is in major collections. In recognition of his achievements, there is a Kepes Visual Centre in Eger, Hungary.
In 1973 he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member and became a full Academician in 1978.
On November 3, 1937 he married Juliet Appleby. They had two children: Juliet, Imre.