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György Kepes

 As said by Forbes writer Jonathon Keats, György Kepes has created some of the greatest photos of the century without using a camera (2015). Kepes was one of the students that was inspired by the previous artist László Moholy-nagy when he was teaching in the Bauhaus School in Germany. He has later went on to work at the school himself in the colour and light department. This artist has also created work which he labelled photo-drawings and what he did was paint on glass and place that as the object on the light sensitive paper. I have read that some of the things he liked to work with were prisms, cones, natural objects and eyes. 

From first glance György Kepes' work seems highly interesting, just before I read that he makes use of prisms I was completely baffled to how he had such an outcome. He creates visuals that leave you wondering on how he created it and inspire me to try and experiment more. There is not a lot of information to how most of them are made but I have linked the one titled Structure Photogram with the painting on glass technique. The thick lines look as if they are paint strokes and some overlap in different shades which gives me the thought they he has exposed the paper more than once. I have also read that Kepes makes use of shadows and naturally the objects that he uses all have one. I have slightly explored this when I tried a photogram of my hand and since I had exposed it for a long time it came out looking almost blurry because of my movement. I saw a similar effect to his photogram labelled Hand on Black Ground. For my experimentation I put my whole hand on the paper but I have noticed that the artist has only placed his fingertips and the palm of his hands on the paper. What this means is that the distance between the finger tips and the center of the palm are lifted up. This is noticeable because only the parts which are completely white have not been exposed to light, which are the parts that were covered by his hand. 


Leaf and Prism (Kapes, G., 1938)
Structure Photogram (Kapes, G., 1939-40)

Hand on Black Ground (Kapes, G., 1939-40)


Information Citation:

Tate. n.d. György Kepes. [online] Available at: <https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-liverpool/exhibition-display/gyorgy-kepes> [Accessed 27 December 2020].

Keats, J., n.d. See How György Kepes Made Some of the Greatest Photos of The Century -- Without A Camera. [online] Forbes. Available at: <https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathonkeats/2015/04/30/see-how-gyorgy-kepes-made-some-of-the-greatest-photos-of-the-century-without-a-camera/?sh=21c515e72691> [Accessed 27 December 2020].

Tate. n.d. ‘Structure Photogram’, György Kepes, c.1939–40. [online] Available at: <https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/kepes-structure-photogram-p80554> [Accessed 27 December 2020].

Image Citation:

Kepes, G., 1938. Leaf and Prism. [image] Available at: <https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-liverpool/exhibition-display/gyorgy-kepes> [Accessed 27 December 2020].

Kepes, G., 1940. Hand on Black Ground. [image] Available at: <https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/kepes-hand-on-black-ground-p80561> [Accessed 27 December 2020].

Kepes, G., 1940. Structure Photogram. [image] Available at: <https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/kepes-structure-photogram-p80554> [Accessed 27 December 2020].
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