Kepes studied under Istvan Csok at the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest from 1924 to 1929. While still a student he was member of the group of avant-garde Hungarian artists known as "Munka." In 1930 he turned to film as a medium of artistic expression, abandoning painting. He worked first in Berlin and then in London, with Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, among others, in film, and stage, exhibition, and graphic design. In 1937 he joined Moholy-Nagy in coming to the United States to develop Chicago's New Bauhaus, which became the Illinois Institute of Design. Kepes headed the New Bauhaus's Light Workshop. His The Language of Vision, a summary of educational ideals and methods developed from his years of teaching, was published in 1944, and remains a standard work in the field. Another landmark publication was The New Landscape In Art and Science, 1956, which reflected his growing interest in a convergence of art and science. In 1945 Kepes joined the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, to teach visual design. In 1967 he created MIT's Center for Advanced Visual Studies, which he directed until his retirement in 1974.
He had returned to working in the painting medium in 1950, and shortly thereafter began to be the subject of frequent one-man exhibitions of his design concepts and paintings held throughout the country. Kepes also executed designs for a number of murals and stained glass windows for major buildings, including Walter Gropius's Graduate Center, Harvard University; Church of the Redeemer, Baltimore, Maryland; Manufacturer's Trust, Time-Life Building, New York.
Among Kepes's many honors are a Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, 1958; Silver Medal of Honor awarded by the Architectural League of New York, 1962; Fine Arts Medal awarded by the American Institute of Architects, 1968; and honorary degrees from Loyola University, Chicago; the University of Mexico, Mexico City; Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh; and the University of Design, Budapest. He is also a member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
