The papers of Hungarian-born artist, art theorist, and educator, Gyorgy Kepes, measure 21.2 linear feet and date from 1909-2003, with the bulk of the material dating from the 1935-1985. The papers document Kepes's career as an artist and educator, and as founder of the Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), through biographical material, correspondence, writings by Kepes and others, project files, exhibition files, printed material, sketchbooks, artwork, sound recordings and motion picture films, and photographic material.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of Hungarian-born artist, art theorist, and educator, Gyorgy Kepes, measure 21.2 linear feet and date from 1909-2003, with the bulk of the material dating from the 1935-1985. The papers document Kepes's career as an artist and educator, and as founder of the Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), through biographical material, correspondence, writings by Kepes and others, project files, exhibition files, printed material, sketchbooks, artwork, sound recordings and motion picture films, and photographic material.
Correspondence provides a wide range of documentation on all aspects of Kepes's career including his collaborations and friendships with artists, architects, writers, scientists, and fellow educators including Rudolf Arnheim, Alexander Calder, Henry Dreyfuss, Charles and Ray Eames, Clive Entwhistle, R. Buckminster Fuller, Walter Gropius, S. W. Hayter, Jean Hélion, Laszlo and Sibyl Moholy-Nagy, Lev Nussberg, Robert Osborn, George Rickey, Saul Steinberg, Kenzo Tange, Robert Jay Wolff, and Jekabs Zvilna. Correspondence also documents the evolution of Kepes's vision for the Center for Advanced Visual Studies, which he established in 1967, and his subsequent leadership of CAVS at M.I.T. Records document his collaborations with students and fellows including Lowry Burgess, Jack Burnham, Piotry Kowalski, Margaret Mead, Otto Piene, Alan Sonfist, Athena Tacha, Vassilakis Takis, Philip Thiel, Harold Tovish, and Wen-Ying Tsai. Correspondents also include people who contributed to Kepes's Vision + Value series, including Michael Blee, Kazuhiko Egawa, Jean Hélion, and others. Correspondence includes three motion picture films, including what appears to be an early version of Powers of Ten by Charles and Ray Eames.
Writings include notes and manuscripts for articles and essays in which Kepes explored ideas evident in his books The New Landscape and Language of Vision, and submitted to publications such as Daedalus, Design, Domus, and Leonardo. Writings also include manuscripts for lectures, and draft manuscripts documenting Kepes's collaborative work with fellow M.I.T. professor Kevin Lynch on city planning, which culminated in Lynch's research project "The Perceptual Form of the City."
A small group of "Times Square Project" files documents Kepes's proposal for a lightscape in Times Square that was ultimately not realized.
Teaching files include sound recordings of circa five symposia and discussions held at M.I.T., the Illinois Institute of Technology, and elsewhere, some featuring Kepes and including Philip Johnson, Eero Saarinen and others.
Exhibition files include documentation of three exhibitions, including Light as a Creative Medium (1968) and a Kepes exhibition at Saidenberg Gallery (1968). They also record Kepes's involvement in designing the 1968 Triennale di Milano.
Printed material includes a substantial collection of announcements and catalogs for Kepes exhibitions, lectures, and other events, and includes catalogs and announcements for scattered exhibitions of his wife, artist and illustrator, Juliet Kepes. Clippings from newspapers and magazines include articles about Kepes, and contain some copies of published writings and designs by him. The series also includes sound recordings and motion picture films containing original material for a CBS television series "The 21st Century," probably as part of the episode "Art for Tomorrow," which appear to feature M.I.T. fellows Jack Burnham and Vassilakis Takis. Another motion picture film of an Italian documentary "Operazione Cometa" can also be found here.
Two sketchbooks contain pen and ink and painted sketches by Kepes. Artwork by Kepes includes original poster designs, caricatures, and many pencil, and pen and ink sketches and paintings on paper and board, including designs for stained glass. Artwork by others includes ink on mylar sketches by D. Judelson and Konstancija Brazdys, and a sketch by Harold Tovish. Also found are circa seventeen motion picture films and four sound recordings, the majority of which are untitled and by unidentified artists, but include films by M.I.T. fellows Otto Piene, Vassilakis Takis, Philip Thiel, Harold Tovish, Wen-Ying Tsai, and others.
Photographs are of Kepes, Juliet Kepes, and other family members; students, colleagues, and friends, including R. Buckminster Fuller, Serge Chermayeff, Harry Bertoia, Varujan Boghosian, Alexander Calder, Marchall McLuhan, Margaret Mead, Herbert Read, I. A. Richards, Saul Steinberg, and William Wurster; and of Kepes in his studio. There are also photos of exhibition installations in which Kepes's work appeared or which he designed, and photos of his artwork and of images for publications which he wrote or edited. Photos by others include artwork by established artists and work by students, as well as photographs arranged by subjects such as cityscapes, forms found in nature, light patterns, mechanical devices, and photomicrographs. A collection of lantern slides with similar content to the photos of artwork and photos by subject is also found in this series and includes a lantern slide of Picasso creating a design with light.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as eleven series.
Series 1: Biographical Material, circa 1940-circa 1980 (0.25 linear feet; Boxes 1, 28)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1936-1984 (5.7 linear feet; Boxes 1-7, 28 OV 33, FCs 39-41)
Series 3: Interviews and Transcripts, 1954-1970 (4 folders; Box 7)
Series 4: Writings and Notes, 1948-circa 1980s (1.4 linear feet; Boxes 7-8, 28)
Series 5: Times Square Project Files, 1972-1974 (6 folders; Box 9)
Series 6: Teaching Files Sound Recordings, circa 1953-1972 (0.7 linear feet; Box 9)
Series 7: Exhibition Files, 1958-1973 (0.4 linear feet; Boxes 9-10)
Series 8: Printed Material, circa 1922-1989 (3.6 linear feet; Boxes 10-12, 28-29, OVs 35, 37, FCs 42-49)
Series 9: Sketchbooks, circa 1940s-circa 1970s (2 folders; Box 12)
Series 10: Artwork and Moving Images, circa 1924-2003 (2.5 linear feet; Boxes 12, 13, OVs 33-36, 38, FCs 50-62)
Series 11: Photographs, 1909-1988 (10.4 linear feet; Boxes 13-32)
Biographical / Historical:
Painter, designer, art theorist, and educator, Gyorgy Kepes (1906-2001), was born in Selyp, Hungary, and studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Budapest. He worked with Moholy-Nagy in Berlin and London before joining him at the New Bauhaus (later the Chicago Institute of Design) in 1937.
Kepes taught courses at the New Bauhaus from 1937 to 1945, and published Language of Vision in 1944, summarizing the educational ideas and methods he had developed during his time at the institute. In 1946 he accepted a teaching position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) where he initiated a program in visual design.
In 1956 Kepes published The New Landscape in Art and Science, in which he presented images from nature that were newly accessible due to developments in science and technology, and explored his ideas for a common language between science and the visual arts.
In 1965, these ideas were apparent in Kepes's proposal of an expanded visual arts program at M.I.T., which would "build new as yet undetermined bridges between art and engineering and science," according to the minutes of an M.I.T. Art Committee meeting in March of that year. Kepes's vision dovetailed with M.I.T.'s vested interest in promoting the arts, and faculty and administrators were open to the argument that "The scientific-technical enterprise needs schooling by the artistic sensibilities." In 1967, they appointed Kepes Director of M.I.T.'s Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS).
Kepes retired from the regular faculty at M.I.T. in 1967, to focus on his role as director of CAVS, where he worked to provide artists with opportunities for exploring new artistic forms on a civic scale through a working dialogue with scientists and engineers. Early fellows of the center included Maryanne Amacher, Joan Brigham, Lowry Burgess, Jack Burnham, Piotry Kowalski, Otto Piene, Vassilakis Takis, and Wen-Ying Tsai.
In 1965-1966 Kepes edited a six-volume series entitled Vision + Value, published by George Braziller, Inc. Each volume featured essays that centered around a core theme: The Education of Vision; Structure in Art and Science; The Nature and Art of Motion; Module, Symmetry, Proportion, Rhythm; Sign, Image, Symbol; and Man-Made Object. Contributions came from prominent artists, designers, architects, and scientists of the time including Rudolf Arnheim, Saul Bass, Marcel Breuer, John Cage, R. Buckminster Fuller, Johannes Itten, Marshall McLuhan, and Paul Rand.
Kepes experimented widely with photography, producing abstract images through the application of fluids and objects to photographic paper. He also took commercial work throughout his career, producing designs for all kinds of objects, including books and stained glass windows for churches. He returned to painting in the 1950s, and his development as a painter continued throughout his career at M.I.T., where he remained until his retirement in 1974, and beyond. His paintings, which were abstract and often incorporated organic shapes and hints of landscapes, can be found in museums such as the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Kepes received many awards during his lifetime, including a Guggenheim Fellowship (1958); the Gold Star Award of the Philadelphia College of Art (1958); the National Association of Art Colleges Annual Award (1968); the California College of Art Award (1968); and the Fine Arts Medal from the American Institute of Architects (1968). In 1973 he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an associate member, and became a full academician in 1978. He was a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters and Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Related Materials:
Additional papers of Gyorgy Kepes can be found at Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Advanced Visual Studies Special Collection.
Separated Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds microfilm of material lent for microfilming (reel 1211) including ninety-eight letters to Kepes from colleagues, 1946-1974. Lent materials were returned to the lender and are not described in the collection container inventory.
Provenance:
Gyorgy Kepes lent papers for microfilming in 1974 and donated material to the Archives of American Art in a series of gifts between 1974 and 1993.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate copies requires advance notice.
Rights:
Authorization to publish, quote, or reproduce requires written permission from Juliet Kepes Stone or Imre Kepes. Contact Reference Services for more information.
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
The collection documents Spanish language television stations in America, and the Telemundo network.
Scope and Contents:
The collection documents Spanish language television stations in America, and the Telemundo network. The WNJU portion includes photographs of reporters and other station personnel; portrait shots of on-air personalities, both negatives and prints; photographs of the reporters at the anchor desk, including both negatives and pritns; a reel of motion picture film of a children's show.
Arrangement:
The collection is organized into four series.
Series 1: Gilda Mirós
Subseries 1.1: Personal Papers
Subseries 1.2: Audiovisual Materials
Series 2: Hector Aguilar
Subseries 2.1: Personal Papers
Subseries 2.2: Audiovisual Materials
Series 3: Telemundo Group, Incorporated.
Subseries 3.1: WKAQ Television Station
Subseries 3.3.1: Maria Kapetanakis Files
Subseries 3.3.2: Ariel Lipiz Files
Subseries 3.3.3: Alicia Soriano Files
Subseries 3.3.4: Susan Solano Vila Files
Subseries 3.3.5: Maria Cristina Barros Files
Subseries 3.3.6: Marilys Llanos Files
Subseries 3.3.7: Manuel M. Martinez Files
Subseries 3.3.8: Audiovisual Materials
Subseries 3.2: WNJU Television Station
Subseries 3.3: WSCV Television Station
Series 4: Univision
Subseries 4.1: Edgardo Gazón Files
Subseries 4.2: Mayda Delgado Files
Subseries 4.3: Ismael Moctezuma Files
Subseries 4.4: Eduardo Kachscovsky Files
Biographical / Historical:
WNJU was the second television station to broadcast in Spanish in the United States. It eventually was owned by Telemundo. WKAQ was the first television station to broadcast in Spanish in the United States. Telemundo stations provide diverse programming, including variety shows, telenovelas, sports, reality television, news programming, and films. Their target audience is the Hispanic and Latin American population in America.
Provenance:
Initial donation by by Jose Cancela, President of WNJU, 2016. The 2016 accrual was donated by station WKAQ. The television stations WKAQ, WNJU, and WSCV also donated materials in 2017.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Mama Benz & the taste of money [videorecording] / written and directed by Karin Junger; produced by Carmen Cobos ; a Ryninks Films production in co-production with IKON and RNTV
Case Studies in Science Education (Video recording)
Science in Focus: Energy (Video recording)
The Next Move, Assessment in Math and Science (Video recording)
Principles for Principals (Video recording)
Shedding Light on Science (Video recording)
Science in Focus: Force and Motion (Video recording)
Essential Science for Teachers (Video recording)
Technical Difficulties (Video recording)
Cosmic Questions (Video recording)
SportSmarts (Video recording)
NASA Forum on the Structure and Evolution of the Universe (Video recording)
Welcome to the Smithsonian (Video recording)
Smithsonian Job Talks (Video recording)
Mind, Brain, and Education (Video recording)
Chemistry: Challenges and Solutions (Video recording)
Physics for the 21st Century (Video recording)
Understandings of Consequence Project (Video recording)
Lighthouse of the Skies (Video recording)
Science and Engineering in the Lives of Students (Video recording)
Eye on the Sky (Video recording)
Factors Influencing College Science Success (Video recording)
Science in Focus: Force and Motion (Video recording)
Youth Astronomy Apprenticeship (Video recording)
Private Universe Project in Math Workshops (Video recording)
Creator::
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Science Media Group Search this
Extent:
45.5 cu. ft. (45 record storage boxes) (1 document box)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Manuscripts
Brochures
Compact discs
Digital images
Digital versatile discs
Electronic records
Floppy disks
Drawings
Color photographs
Audiotapes
Motion pictures (visual works)
Sound recordings
Videotapes
Date:
1986-2013
Descriptive Entry:
The Science Media Group (SMG) was founded by Dr. Matthew H. Schneps and Dr. Philip Michael Sadler as an experimental project to explore novel applications of video
in the service of science education. In operation at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the Harvard College Observatory from 1989 to 2013, this accession consists
of videotapes and motion picture film of edited programs, camera masters, and supporting materials. The programs focus on classroom teaching and reflect the best practices
drawn from research in science teaching and learning. Programs include interviews and on-camera presentations by leaders in the science education reform movement; extensive
interviews with students, science and mathematics content experts, and K-12 and information science educators.
Productions documented include: "Essential Science for Teachers"; "Technical Difficulties"; "Cosmic Questions"; "SportSmarts"; "Shedding Light on Science"; "The Next Move,
Assessment in Math and Science"; "NASA Forum on the Structure and Evolution of the Universe"; "Science in Focus: Energy"; "Principles for Principals"; "Welcome to the Smithsonian";
"Smithsonian Job Talks"; "Mind, Brain, and Education"; "Chemistry: Challenges and Solutions"; "Physics for the 21st Century"; "Understandings of Consequence Project"; "Lighthouse
of the Skies"; "Science and Engineering in the Lives of Students"; "Eye on the Sky"; "A Private Universe"; "Factors Influencing College Science Success"; "Looking at Learning
. . . Again"; "Science in Focus: Force and Motion"; "Youth Astronomy Apprenticeship"; "Case Studies in Science Education"; and "Private Universe Project in Math Workshops".
SMG partnered with Annenberg/CPB for many years on productions.
Some materials are from before the SMG was formed. Materials include videotapes, audiotapes, motion picture film, sound recordings, notes, shot logs, reports, questionnaires,
proposals, release forms, drawings, brochures, and images. Some materials are in electronic format.
Restrictions:
Restrictions pertaining to the use of these materials may apply (based on contracts/copyright). Access restrictions may also apply if viewing/listening copies are not currently available. Viewing/listening copies can be made for a fee. Contact reference staff for details.
When the season is good [videorecording] : artists of arctic Alaska / [presented by] The Alaska Native Arts Foundation ; directed by Andrew Okpeaha MacLean ; produced by Cara Marcous
1 videodisc (31 min.) : sound, color and black and white ; 4 3/4 in. + 1 viewer discussion guide (5 pages on 1 CD-ROM : color illustrations ; 4 3/4 in.)
70 acres in Chicago : Cabrini Green / Ronit Films presents ; producer/director, Ronit Bezalel ; writer/editor, Catherine Crouch ; executive producer, Judy Hoffman ; producer, Brenda Schumacher
Watershed [videorecording] : exploring a new water ethic for the new West / the Redford Center presents ; a Kontent Films production ; writer/director, Mark Decena ; producer, Renata Foucré ; producers, James Redford, Jill Tidman ; executive producers, Robert Redford, Teri Heyman, Lee Bycel
