1898-1974
Sepeshy's father was a government official, first for the Hapsburgs before World War I and later for the local Czech government. Sepeshy attended the National Academy of Fine Arts and the Academy of Art Teachers in Budapest, and then continued to his studies abroad in Vienna, Paris, Germany, Italy and Spain.
Sepeshy immigrated to the United States in 1921, first to New York and then settled in Detroit, and was exhibiting in groups shows as early as 1922. A trip to Taos brought him into contact with a sympathetic circle of artists which included Walter Ufer and John Sloan and with a landscape and native type which led him into painting the American scene, which complemented the work he had been doing of scenes from his homeland.
Especially in his commissioned mural work did he come to focus on the American scene: panels on transportation for General Motors (1927) and for the Fordson High School, Dearborn, Michigan (1928); scenes from the history of Illinois for the Chicago Century of Progress Exhibition (1933); scenes from the history of Michigan for the J.L. Hudson Co., Detroit (1946); post office murals, "Great Lakes Fisherman" for Detroit (1940) and "Barnyard" for Nashville, Illinois (1942); and a series on the American Steel Industry for Fortune Magazine (October 1938 issue).
Recognition came to Sepeshy quickly: He began by working for the architect Albert Kahn in Detroit (1924), then was appointed instructor at the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts (1926) and then at Cranbrook Academy (1930). In 1932 he had his first New York show at the Newhouse Galleries, and by 1938 Midtown Galleries was handling his work. In 1947 he won first prize at the Carnegie Painting in the United States Exhibition for "Marine Still Life", and that same year was appointed director at Cranbrook, succeeding Saarinen.
Sepeshy's subject matter includes landscape, portraiture and genre with a special sympathy for the mid-western cityscape and the laboring class at work and at leisure. His mood is often serious, but his concept is always complex. His landscapes and outdoor genre scenes often unite collective human activity with a vast landscape by the construction of an infinitely regressing space according to perspective laws. His close-up pictures, genre portraits--people shown in action, a woman combing her hair, picking flowers or decorating a hat--and portraits are shown against a solid background to highlight the subject as much as possible. But whatever the approach, Sepeshy simplifies, rearranges and reorders so that the picture becomes an idealistic symbolic message of harmony and balance. His medium is tempera and his technique, treating the entire surface with a uniform application of small thin brushstrokes which produces a soft focus mood of built-up color and form, is actually rendering in colored paint the lines of a master draftsman.
In 1952 he was awarded the Samuel F.B. Morse Gold Medal by the NAD.
Sepeshy immigrated to the United States in 1921, first to New York and then settled in Detroit, and was exhibiting in groups shows as early as 1922. A trip to Taos brought him into contact with a sympathetic circle of artists which included Walter Ufer and John Sloan and with a landscape and native type which led him into painting the American scene, which complemented the work he had been doing of scenes from his homeland.
Especially in his commissioned mural work did he come to focus on the American scene: panels on transportation for General Motors (1927) and for the Fordson High School, Dearborn, Michigan (1928); scenes from the history of Illinois for the Chicago Century of Progress Exhibition (1933); scenes from the history of Michigan for the J.L. Hudson Co., Detroit (1946); post office murals, "Great Lakes Fisherman" for Detroit (1940) and "Barnyard" for Nashville, Illinois (1942); and a series on the American Steel Industry for Fortune Magazine (October 1938 issue).
Recognition came to Sepeshy quickly: He began by working for the architect Albert Kahn in Detroit (1924), then was appointed instructor at the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts (1926) and then at Cranbrook Academy (1930). In 1932 he had his first New York show at the Newhouse Galleries, and by 1938 Midtown Galleries was handling his work. In 1947 he won first prize at the Carnegie Painting in the United States Exhibition for "Marine Still Life", and that same year was appointed director at Cranbrook, succeeding Saarinen.
Sepeshy's subject matter includes landscape, portraiture and genre with a special sympathy for the mid-western cityscape and the laboring class at work and at leisure. His mood is often serious, but his concept is always complex. His landscapes and outdoor genre scenes often unite collective human activity with a vast landscape by the construction of an infinitely regressing space according to perspective laws. His close-up pictures, genre portraits--people shown in action, a woman combing her hair, picking flowers or decorating a hat--and portraits are shown against a solid background to highlight the subject as much as possible. But whatever the approach, Sepeshy simplifies, rearranges and reorders so that the picture becomes an idealistic symbolic message of harmony and balance. His medium is tempera and his technique, treating the entire surface with a uniform application of small thin brushstrokes which produces a soft focus mood of built-up color and form, is actually rendering in colored paint the lines of a master draftsman.
In 1952 he was awarded the Samuel F.B. Morse Gold Medal by the NAD.
