Thomas H. Kapsalis

American artist (1925–2022)
WorksEleven or K Edit this on WikidataPosition heldinstructional staff (1954–1961), assistant professor (1961–1975), professor emeritus (1975–2022) Edit this on Wikidata

Thomas Harry Kapsalis (May 31, 1925 – July 14, 2022) was a professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a leading American abstract painter and sculptor.[1][2][3][4][5]

Personal life

Thomas Harry Kapsalis was born to Adamantia and Harry Kapsalis on May 31, 1925 in Chicago, Illinois.[1][4][6] He married Stella (née Manos) Kapsalis around 1956.[6] They had two children together.[6] Kapsalis was drafted into the United States Army during World War II in 1944, where he fought at the Battle of the Bulge and was captured as a prisoner of war.[6][7][2][8][9][10][11] Prior to being conscripted into the Army, he was halfway through pursuing his Bachelor's degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.[8][11]

Career

After returning from the war, Kapsalis returned to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago to earn a Bachelor's degree in 1949 and Master's degree in 1957 utilizing the G.I. Bill.[1][8][9][11] In 1956 he was an active member of the American Association of University Professors.[12] He received a Fulbright-Hays Fellowship to study with Willi Baumeister in Stuttgart from 1953-1954.[7][9][11][13] He worked as an instructor in painting and drawing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago starting in 1954, was promoted to Assistant Professor in 1961,[14][15] and retired in 1975.[2][9] He later became a Professor Emeritus.[16]

His art work was featured in "Chicago and Vicinity" - an annual exhibition that featured work from Artists in Chicago - in 1956, 1960, 1969, and 2016.[5] In the early 1970s, Kapsalis' work was in a two-year exhibit sponsored by the Illinois Arts Council, which consisted of 4 paintings from 24 different Illinois based painters.[17]

Some have called his work that of Modernism.[7] He appreciated the work of Kathleen Blackshear and Katherine Kuh.[18] Kapsalis described the style of his work as moving from expressionistic realism to figurative abstraction and finally to non-objective abstraction. He said "I never explain my work in literal terms because I am creating something visual."[19] His abstract paintings are often quite colorful, but for a period he painted without color and only in black and white to protest the Vietnam War.[11] He continued to paint and exhibit into his 90s.[20][21]

In 2009, Kapsalis appeared as the main subject of the documentary tryphon: three sounds, produced by the CUENTOS Foundation and premiered at the Brauer Museum.[2] In that same year, he published a book titled Thomas H. Kapsalis : Artist's House : Paintings & Sculpture 1947-2008.[22]

In 2011, Kapsalis' work - along with that of Ralph Arnold, Vera Klement, Ellen Lanyon and others - was displayed in the Illinois State Museum's exhibit Luminous Ground: Artists With Histories, which was open until January 2013.[23][24] In 2013, his work was on display at the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art.[25] In 2015, his work was again exhibited at the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art in the exhibit Chicago Connection: Artists from the Post-War Period alongside Seymour Rosofsky, Eleanor Coen, and Arthur Lerner.[26][27] From January - March 2018, Kapsalis' work put on display by Art Design Chicago in an exhibit titled Thomas H. Kapsalis: Black + White, etc.[10] From May to June 2020, Kapsalis' work was displayed on an online exhibit titled Thomas H. Kapsalis: Eight Decades sponsored by Corbett vs. Dempsey in honor of Kapsalis' 95th birthday.[20]

Death

Thomas H. Kapsalis died on July 14, 2022.[6] He is buried in Elmwood Cemetery.[6]

Collections

Kapsalis' work is held in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Art,[4] the Minneapolis Institute of Art,[28] the Art Institute of Chicago,[3] the Illinois State Museum,[18] and the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art.[29]

References

  1. ^ a b c 2000 outstanding artists and designers of the 20th century. Cambridge: International Biographical Centre. 2001. p. 136. ISBN 978-0-948875-93-9.
  2. ^ a b c d "tryphon: three sounds, the art of thomas h. kapsalis | vdb.org". www.vdb.org. Retrieved 2023-01-09.
  3. ^ a b "Thomas H. Kapsalis". The Art Institute of Chicago. Retrieved 2023-01-09.
  4. ^ a b c "Artist Info". www.nga.gov. Retrieved 2023-01-09.
  5. ^ a b Sierzputowski, Kate (2016-03-15). "'Chicago and Vicinity' is a semi-comprehensive account of the local art scene". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 2023-01-09.
  6. ^ a b c d e f "Thomas H. Kapsalis". Chicago Tribune. July 17, 2022.
  7. ^ a b c "Gregg Hertzlieb: "Thomas H. Kapsalis: 'Still Life and Cloth'"". www.valpo.edu. Retrieved 2023-01-09.
  8. ^ a b c "Life During Wartime | 150 Years of SAIC". www.saic.edu. Retrieved 2023-01-09.
  9. ^ a b c d "Thomas H. Kapsalis". corbettvsdempsey.com. Retrieved 2023-01-09.
  10. ^ a b "Thomas H. Kapsalis: Black + White, etc". Art Design Chicago. Retrieved 2023-01-09.
  11. ^ a b c d e Gallant, Leah (2019). Wells, Grace (ed.). there for the making: thomas kapsalis at 93 (PDF). f newsmagazine, School of the Art Institute of Chicago (published May 2019). p. 7. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
  12. ^ "Membership: Classes and Conditions: Nominations and Elections". AAUP Bulletin. 42 (2): 415. 1956. ISSN 0001-026X. JSTOR 40222191.
  13. ^ "Thomas Kapsalis - Biography". www.askart.com. Retrieved 2023-01-09.
  14. ^ Norman B. Boothby. “The School of the Art Institute: 1961.” The Art Institute of Chicago Quarterly, vol. 55, no. 2, 1961, pp. 33. JSTOR, JSTOR 4117423. Accessed 9 Jan. 2023.
  15. ^ “The Art Rental and Sales Gallery of the Woman’s Board Exhibits John Asencio and Thomas Kapsalis.” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago (1973-1982), vol. 73, no. 5/6, 1979, pp. 22–23. JSTOR, JSTOR 4104188. Accessed 9 Jan. 2023.
  16. ^ "tkapsa". School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Retrieved 2023-01-09.
  17. ^ Robbins, Eugenia S. “Art News from Colleges and Elsewhere.” Art Journal, vol. 31, no. 2, 1971, pp. 238. JSTOR, JSTOR 775580. Accessed 9 Jan. 2023.
  18. ^ a b "Untitled by Tom Kapsalis". www.museum.state.il.us. Retrieved 2023-01-09.
  19. ^ Sundell, Ivy (2000). Art scene Chicago 2000. Evanston, IL: Crow Woods Pub. pp. 54–55. ISBN 978-0-9665871-6-6.
  20. ^ a b "Thomas H. Kapsalis: Eight Decades". corbettvsdempsey.com. Retrieved 2023-01-09.
  21. ^ "Thomas Kapsalis Black + White, etc". corbettvsdempsey.com. Retrieved 2023-01-09.
  22. ^ Kapsalis Thomas H et al. Thomas H. Kapsalis : Artist's House : Paintings & Sculpture 1947-2008. Corbett vs. Dempsey 2009.
  23. ^ "Luminous Ground: Artists With Histories--Illinois State Museum". www.museum.state.il.us. Retrieved 2023-01-09.
  24. ^ Stienstra, Anita. "Masters of art". Illinois Times. Retrieved 2023-01-09.
  25. ^ "Review: Thomas Kapsalis/Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art | Newcity Art". 2013-07-02. Retrieved 2023-01-09.
  26. ^ "Chicago's Artistic Voices of the 1950s and '60s Focus of New Exhibition". WTTW News. Retrieved 2023-01-09.
  27. ^ "Chicago Connection". UIMA. 31 July 2015. Retrieved 2023-01-09.
  28. ^ "Eleven or K, Thomas Kapsalis ^ Minneapolis Institute of Art". collections.artsmia.org. Retrieved 2023-01-09.
  29. ^ "Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art | Chicago Studies | The University of Chicago". chicagostudies.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 2023-01-09.
  • Oral History of Thomas Kapsalis (2010), Ryerson and Burnham Art and Architecture Archive
  • Family Histories: A Tale of Two Greek Americans by Effie Kapsalis
  • there for the making: thomas kapsalis at 93, Chicago Bauhaus Newspaper