Thomas H. Kapsalis

Thomas Harry Kapsalis was born to Adamantia and Harry Kapsalis on May 31, 1925 in Chicago, Illinois.{{Cite book |url=http://archive.org/details/2000outstandinga0000unse |title=2000 outstanding artists and designers of the 20th century |date=2001 |location=Cambridge |publisher= International Biographical Centre |isbn=978-0-948875-93-9 |pages=136}}{{Cite news |date=July 17, 2022 |title=Thomas H. Kapsalis |work=Chicago Tribune |url=https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/chicagotribune/name/thomas-kapsalis-obituary?id=35810049}} He married Stella (née Manos) Kapsalis around 1956. They had two children together. 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.{{Cite web |title=Gregg Hertzlieb: "Thomas H. Kapsalis: 'Still Life and Cloth'" |url=https://www.valpo.edu/vpr/hertzliebkapsalis.html |access-date=2023-01-09 |website=www.valpo.edu}}{{Cite web |title=Life During Wartime {{!}} 150 Years of SAIC |url=https://www.saic.edu/150/life-during-wartime.html |access-date=2023-01-09 |website=www.saic.edu}}{{Cite web |title=Thomas H. Kapsalis |url=https://corbettvsdempsey.com/artists/thomas-kapsalis/ |access-date=2023-01-09 |website=corbettvsdempsey.com |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Thomas H. Kapsalis: Black + White, etc |url=https://2018.artdesignchicago.org/events/thomas-h-kapsalis-black-white-etc |access-date=2023-01-09 |website=Art Design Chicago}}{{Cite book |last=Gallant |first=Leah |url=https://fnewsmagazine.com/images/issues/2019-05-May-Bauhaus-Insert.pdf |title=there for the making: thomas kapsalis at 93 |publisher=f newsmagazine, School of the Art Institute of Chicago |year=2019 |editor-last=Wells |editor-first=Grace |publication-date=May 2019 |pages=7 |language=en |access-date=9 January 2023}} 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.

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. In 1956 he was an active member of the American Association of University Professors.{{Cite journal |date=1956 |title=Membership: Classes and Conditions: Nominations and Elections |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40222191 |journal=AAUP Bulletin |volume=42 |issue=2 |pages=415 |jstor=40222191 |issn=0001-026X}} He received a Fulbright-Hays Fellowship to study with Willi Baumeister in Stuttgart from 1953-1954.{{Cite web |title=Thomas Kapsalis - Biography |url=https://www.askart.com/artist/Thomas_Harry_Kapsalis/109994/Thomas_Harry_Kapsalis.aspx |access-date=2023-01-09 |website=www.askart.com}} 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,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.“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. and retired in 1975. He later became a Professor Emeritus.{{Cite web |title=tkapsa |url=https://www.saic.edu/profiles/faculty/thomas-kapsalis |access-date=2023-01-09 |website=School of the Art Institute of Chicago |language=en}}

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. 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.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.

Some have called his work that of Modernism. He appreciated the work of Kathleen Blackshear and Katherine Kuh.{{Cite web |title=Untitled by Tom Kapsalis |url=https://www.museum.state.il.us/ismdepts/art/Abstract/popups/paintinggallery/kapsalis-pop.html |access-date=2023-01-09 |website=www.museum.state.il.us}} 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."{{Cite book |last=Sundell |first=Ivy |url=http://archive.org/details/artscenechicago20000sund |title=Art scene Chicago 2000 |date=2000 |location=Evanston, IL |publisher= Crow Woods Pub. |isbn=978-0-9665871-6-6 |pages=54–55}} 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. He continued to paint and exhibit into his 90s.{{Cite web |title=Thomas H. Kapsalis: Eight Decades |url=https://corbettvsdempsey.com/exhibitions/thomas-h-kapsalis-eight-decades/ |access-date=2023-01-09 |website=corbettvsdempsey.com |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Thomas Kapsalis Black + White, etc |url=https://corbettvsdempsey.com/exhibitions/thomas-kapsalis-black-white-etc/ |access-date=2023-01-09 |website=corbettvsdempsey.com |language=en}}

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. In that same year, he published a book titled Thomas H. Kapsalis : Artist's House : Paintings & Sculpture 1947-2008.Kapsalis Thomas H et al. Thomas H. Kapsalis : Artist's House : Paintings & Sculpture 1947-2008. Corbett vs. Dempsey 2009.

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.{{Cite web |title=Luminous Ground: Artists With Histories--Illinois State Museum |url=https://www.museum.state.il.us/ismsites/chicago/exhibitions.html?ExhibitID=216 |access-date=2023-01-09 |website=www.museum.state.il.us}}{{Cite web |last=Stienstra |first=Anita |title=Masters of art |url=https://www.illinoistimes.com/springfield/masters-of-art/Content?oid=11437196 |access-date=2023-01-09 |website=Illinois Times |language=en}} In 2013, his work was on display at the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art.{{Cite web |date=2013-07-02 |title=Review: Thomas Kapsalis/Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art {{!}} Newcity Art |url=https://art.newcity.com/2013/07/02/review-thomas-kapsalisukrainian-institute-of-modern-art/ |access-date=2023-01-09 |language=en-US}} 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.{{Cite web |title=Chicago's Artistic Voices of the 1950s and '60s Focus of New Exhibition |url=https://news.wttw.com/2015/08/11/chicagos-artistic-voices-1950s-and-60s-focus-new-exhibition |access-date=2023-01-09 |website=WTTW News |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Chicago Connection |url=https://uima-chicago.org/past-exhib-list/2015/7/31/chicago-connection |access-date=2023-01-09 |website=UIMA |date=31 July 2015 |language=en-US}} From January - March 2018, Kapsalis' work put on display by Art Design Chicago in an exhibit titled Thomas H. Kapsalis: Black + White, etc. 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.

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

Kapsalis' work is held in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Art, the Minneapolis Institute of Art,{{Cite web |title=Eleven or K, Thomas Kapsalis ^ Minneapolis Institute of Art |url=http://collections.artsmia.org/art/127143/eleven-or-k-thomas-kapsalis |access-date=2023-01-09 |website=collections.artsmia.org}} the Art Institute of Chicago, the Illinois State Museum, and the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art.{{Cite web |title=Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art {{!}} Chicago Studies {{!}} The University of Chicago |url=https://chicagostudies.uchicago.edu/ukrainian-village/ukrainian-village-ukrainian-institute-modern-art |access-date=2023-01-09 |website=chicagostudies.uchicago.edu |language=en}}

{{reflist}}

• [https://artic.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/artists/id/56 Oral History of Thomas Kapsalis (2010)], Ryerson and Burnham Art and Architecture Archive
• [https://digitaleffie.medium.com/ol-8d0941b3219c Family Histories: A Tale of Two Greek Americans] by Effie Kapsalis
• [https://fnewsmagazine.com/images/issues/2019-05-May-Bauhaus-Insert.pdf there for the making: thomas kapsalis at 93], Chicago Bauhaus Newspaper

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Category:1925 births

Category:2022 deaths

Category:Created via preloaddraft

Category:20th-century American painters

Category:20th-century American sculptors

Category:School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni

Category:School of the Art Institute of Chicago faculty

Category:United States Army soldiers

Category:American prisoners of war in World War II

Category:Artists from Chicago

Category:American people of Greek descent

Category:American abstract painters