Gouache on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/gyorgy-kepes-18710" aria-label="More by György Kepes" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">György Kepes</a>
Green Leaves and Geometry
Presented by Michael and Jane Wilson in honour of Sir Nicholas Serota (Tate Americas Foundation) 2017
abstraction
emotions, concepts and ideas
environment / nature
geometric
leaf
nature
nature - leaf
non-representational
plants and flowers
science - geometric lines
society
symbols and personifications
universal concepts
<p><span>Green Leaves and Geometry </span>is a gouache on paper made by György Kepes in the early 1940s. Relatively small in scale, the work is executed in black ink on a white background, highlighted by vibrant greens and blues. As the title suggests, it is a study of green leaves combined with geometric drawings. Kepes often took nature as his starting point, highlighting its fragility, however this study also shows his ongoing fascination with the relationship between art, nature and science in its bringing together of natural elements with geometric patterns (see also, <span>Bird and Mastodon</span> c.1940s [Tate L03979]). This combination of subject matter can be seen throughout his early practice across different media, including his photograms, camera-less photographic studies in which he used objects from nature such as twigs, leaves and organic forms alongside prisms and mechanical instruments (see Tate P80540, P80542–P80544, P80552–P80554 for examples).</p>
paper unique gouache
14 October 2014 – 10 May 2015
2015-05-10
14 October 2014 – 10 May 2015
2015-05-10
2014-10-14
Tate St Ives (St Ives, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/stives/
2014-10-14
The Modern Lens: International Photography and the Tate Collection
Exhibition
Green Leaves and Geometry
support: 673 × 546 mm
Presented by Michael and Jane Wilson in honour of Sir Nicholas Serota (Tate Americas Foundation) 2017
<div class="text">
<p>
<i>Green Leaves and Geometry </i>is a gouache on paper made by György Kepes in the early 1940s. Relatively small in scale, the work is executed in black ink on a white background, highlighted by vibrant greens and blues. As the title suggests, it is a study of green leaves combined with geometric drawings. Kepes often took nature as his starting point, highlighting its fragility, however this study also shows his ongoing fascination with the relationship between art, nature and science in its bringing together of natural elements with geometric patterns (see also, <i>Bird and Mastodon</i> c.1940s [Tate L03979]). This combination of subject matter can be seen throughout his early practice across different media, including his photograms, camera-less photographic studies in which he used objects from nature such as twigs, leaves and organic forms alongside prisms and mechanical instruments (see Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/kepes-feathery-light-p80540" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P80540</span></a>, <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/kepes-lily-and-egg-p80542" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P80542</span></a>–<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/kepes-leaf-and-prism-p80544" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P80544</span></a>, <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/kepes-hand-and-magnet-photogram-p80552" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P80552</span></a>–<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/kepes-structure-photogram-p80554" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P80554</span></a> for examples).</p>
<p>These works highlight Kepes’s dedication to cross-disciplinary practice in his early career, which continued throughout his lifetime. Born in Hungary in 1906, he began his artistic practice in Budapest and Berlin, where he met and began working alongside László Moholy-Nagy (1895–1946). Known as a painter, sculptor, designer, photographer and educator, with a keen interest in the crossover between and innovation of art and science, Kepes was invited in 1937 by Moholy-Nagy to head the light department at the New Bauhaus (later the Institute of Design) in Chicago and then went on to teach at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Here his cross-disciplinary practice culminated in the foundation of the Centre for Advance Visual Studies which he conceived and directed until his retirement.</p>
<p>
<b>Further reading</b>
<br/>Judith Wechsler, <i>Gyorgy Kepes, The MIT Years: 1945–1977</i>, Cambridge, Massachusetts 1978.</p>
<p>Shoair Mavlian<br/>August 2013</p>
</div>

Summary
2017-12-13T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
abstraction emotions, concepts and ideas environment / nature geometric leaf nature nature - leaf non-representational plants and flowers science - geometric lines society symbols and personifications universal concepts