Zoltan Sepeshy
American, born Hungary, 1898 - 1974Resort City, Frankfort, Michigan, n.d.
Not on view
Oil on canvas
Dimensions20 × 25 1/4 in.
Gift of J.L. Hudson Co. (Michigan on Parade), 1956.1
Sepeshy emigrated to the New York in 1921, before settling permanently in the Detroit area. He worked as an architectural draftsman for Albert Kahn from 1922-1925. While working for Kahn he met Eliel Saarinen who invited Sepeshy, in 1930, to teach at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. Sepeshy moved quickly from instructor, to visiting artist and chair of the painting department, to director of the Academy when Saarinen died in 1947. Finally from 1959 until his retirement in 1966, Sepeshy served as president of Cranbrook Academy.
In the late 1950s, Sepeshy contributed to the planning and decoration of the DeWaters Art Center, current home to the Flint Institute of Arts. He died in Birmingham, MI as one of Michigan's most famous and decorated artists.
His style was often rather planar and abstract, however his figural representation tended to be a blend of realism and expressionism.
