# György Kepes artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/gyorgy-kepes/
Profile generated: 2026-05-23T20:48:00.208Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1906-10-04
- Death date: 2001-12-29
- Nationality: Hungarian, American
- Movements: Bauhaus, Light and space art
- Common media: Painting, Photography, Cliché-verre, Glass design, Design

## About György Kepes

György Kepes (1906–2001) was a Hungarian-born American painter, photographer, designer, educator, and art theorist whose career bridged European avant-garde experimentation and postwar American art and technology. Born in Hungary, Kepes immigrated to the United States in 1937 and joined the faculty of the New Bauhaus in Chicago, where he taught design and explored the intersections of light, perception, and visual communication. In 1967 he founded the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a pioneering program linking art, science, and technology, and directed it until his retirement in 1974. His wide-ranging practice encompassed painting, photography, photograms, cliché-verre, glass design, and theoretical writing. Works by Kepes are held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Tate in London, and other major institutions. Collectors encounter his work primarily through photographic prints, works on paper, and paintings that appear at international auction.

## Common works and media

Collectors are most likely to encounter photographic prints (including gelatin silver prints, photograms, and cliché-verre), paintings in oil or mixed media, works on paper such as drawings and watercolors, prints and multiples, and occasional design objects or glass works. His subject matter often explores light, abstraction, and visual perception. Works span his European period through his decades at MIT.

## Market and appraisal context

György Kepes's works appear across several auction categories, with photographs and works on paper being the most common. Valuation depends on medium, date, provenance, condition, and whether a work can be linked to his influential Bauhaus or MIT periods. Photographic prints, including cliché-verre and photograms, are the most frequently traded. Paintings and larger-format works are less common at auction. Collectors should verify edition details, printing dates, and condition with a qualified specialist, and compare against public auction records for comparable lots.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine artist identity research from museum, library-authority, and scholarly sources with auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available.

## Sources

- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q721633
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gy%C3%B6rgy_Kepes
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500028012
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/46754809/
- RKD: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/43964
- Tate: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/gyorgy-kepes-18710
- The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/3067
- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n50044766