Gouache, graphite and engraving 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>
Bird and Mastodon
Presented by Michael and Jane Wilson in honour of Sir Nicholas Serota (Tate Americas Foundation) 2017
animals: birds
animals: features
animals: mammals
bird - non-specific
branch
desert
display case / vitrine
ecology
education, science and learning
emotions, concepts and ideas
environment / nature
furnishings
landscape
mastadon
objects
science
skeleton
social comment
society
universal concepts
<p><span>Bird and Mastodon</span> is a small scale gouache on paper made by Kepes in the early 1940s. The work depicts a vibrantly coloured bird perched on a curving branch above the skeleton of a mastodon. The mastodon, an extinct species native to Central and North America, is enclosed in a glass cabinet similar to that used in the display of scientific natural history specimens and fossils in a museum. 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 (see also, <span>Green Leaves and Geometry</span> c.1940s [Tate L03978]). 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 graphite engraving
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
Bird and Mastodon
support: 669 × 546 mm
Presented by Michael and Jane Wilson in honour of Sir Nicholas Serota (Tate Americas Foundation) 2017
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<p>
<i>Bird and Mastodon</i> is a small scale gouache on paper made by Kepes in the early 1940s. The work depicts a vibrantly coloured bird perched on a curving branch above the skeleton of a mastodon. The mastodon, an extinct species native to Central and North America, is enclosed in a glass cabinet similar to that used in the display of scientific natural history specimens and fossils in a museum. 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 (see also, <i>Green Leaves and Geometry</i> c.1940s [Tate L03978]). 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>
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<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>
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Summary
2017-12-13T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
animals: birds animals: features animals: mammals bird - non-specific branch desert display case / vitrine ecology education, science and learning emotions, concepts and ideas environment / nature furnishings landscape mastadon objects science skeleton social comment society universal concepts