art@iit Presents Gyorgy Kepes: Languages of Vision
Exhibit displays the works of an art and technology pioneer- Opening Thursday, January 15
art@iit at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) is pleased to present “Languages of Vision,” an exhibit of works by the late artist and educator György Kepes. The exhibition will be on display from January 15 through February 27 in the Kemper Room Art Gallery of the Galvin Library, 35 West 33rd St., Chicago, on IIT's Main Campus.
An artist, teacher and writer, György Kepes worked successfully throughout his career to establish new connections between the communities of art, science, technology and industry. His efforts addressed design education, the scientific technologies of image-making and the societal and environmental implications of technology and media. Today, he is recognized as a true pioneer in new media practices.
Born in Hungary in 1906, Kepes trained as a painter at the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts in Prague and quickly became a member of the avant-garde arts communities in Prague and Berlin. In 1937, at the invitation of his friend and colleague Laszlo Maholy-Nagy, Kepes came to Chicago to head the Light and Color Department at the New Bauhaus, today’s IIT Institute of Design. After the publication of his seminal book, “Language of Vision,” which brought together Bauhaus practices of visual design with theories of Gestalt and visual perception, Kepes moved to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he was the founding director for its Center for Advanced Visual Studies.
“Languages of Vision” brings together a representative selection of the various phases of Kepes’ career from 1936 to 1987, courtesy of the Kepes Visual Center in Eger, Hungary.
An opening reception for the exhibition will take place from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, January 22, in the Kemper Room Art Gallery. At 6 p.m., a lecture titled "The Language of Light: Kepes and the Light Workshop at the New Bauhaus” will be presented by Elizabeth Siegel, associate curator of photography at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Exhibit hours are Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday noon to 5 p.m.
Established in 2004, art@iit is the product of a cross-discipline, interprofessional student project, with a mission to feature and promote the art of technology.
Throughout 2009, IIT’s Mies van der Rohe Society and the School of the Art Institute (SAIC) will celebrate the 90th year of the Bauhaus, presenting exhibitions and programs that examine the presence of modernism today. The year-long “Living Modern” event will tell the Chicago chapter in the international story of modernism, looking at the movement”s continuing ideals of inter-disciplinary and innovative work intended to make a better world.
Founded in 1890, IIT is a Ph.D.-granting university with more than 7,300 students in engineering, sciences, architecture, psychology, design, humanities, business and law. IIT's interprofessional, technology-focused curriculum is designed to advance knowledge through research and scholarship, to cultivate invention improving the human condition, and to prepare students from throughout the world for a life of professional achievement, service to society, and individual fulfillment. Visit www.iit.edu.
