The First Class of Fulbrighters - Fulbright-Kommission

Reconciliation
by Thomas Kapsalis
I WAS BORN IN CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, IN
1925. I visited Germany two times in my life. The first
time was when I was in the U.S. Army infantry during
World War II and fought in the Battle of the Bulge, was
wounded, and became a prisoner of war for five months in
Neubrandenburg, Germany, at Stalag II A.
The second time was during the year of 1953-1954. I
received the Fulbright grant to Stuttgart, Germany, to
study with Willi Baumeister and Otto Baum at the
Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Stuttgart.
When I think back to both experiences I had in Germany,
I have mixed feelings. One can imagine the negative
feelings I had. On the positive side, it was my good
fortune to see the Deutscher Werkbund (the Weissenhof
Housing Project) in Stuttgart. These buildings were
designed by Mies van der Rohe and the best European
architects Peter Behrens, Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier
and J.J.P. Oud, among others.
I also saw a retrospective exhibition of Willi Baumeister
in Stuttgart. I was honored to meet Willi Baumeister
and study in his class. I liked his work and learned a great
deal about abstract painting.
I visited many art museums in Europe and Germany
and I was happy to see the actual painting entitled Funeral
of the Poet Panizza by George Grosz in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen
in Stuttgart I had only seen it before as
reproductions in books. I also bought an original litho-
graph by George Grosz at a gallery in Stuttgart.
After I returned to the States, I was a teacher in the
Chicago public high schools for three years and on the faculty
at Northwestern University for fourteen years and a
professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for
over 51 years.
In fact, I am still teaching one day a week at the
School of the Art Institute of Chicago. I am also a practicing
artist. What I like doing more than teaching or
exhibiting is doing my work, that is painting, drawing,
and sculpture in my own studio.
I have exhibited in Germany and Canada as well as
Chicago, New York, Washington D.C., Madison, Omaha,
Boston, Philadelphia, Seattle, Cedar City, Houston, Orlando,
Anchorage, and Little Rock. The gallery that has my
work at the present time is the Robert Henry Adams Fine
Art Gallery in Chicago.
IN MY WILDEST DREAMS I never thought I
would receive something as wonderful as the Fulbright
scholarship. It has affected my life in such a positive way.
After coming back to Chicago from the year in Germany,
the dean of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
instantly hired me to teach. I met Stella Manos, a wonderful
girl that was in art school with me. I married her and
had two children and we now live in a nice house on the
north side of Chicago.
Thomas H. Kapsalis was born in 1925 in Chicago. He served
in the 106th Army Infantry during World War II and was a
prisoner of war in Germany from December 1944 to May
1945. In 1949 Kapsalis earned a B.A.E. from the School of
the Art Institute of Chicago and in 1953 went to Stuttgart on
a Fulbright-Hays Fellowship to study at the Staatliche
Akademie der Bildenden Kunst. From 1954 until the present
Kapsalis has been Associate Professor in the Drawing and
Painting Department at the School of the Art Institute of
Chicago, where in 1957 he earned his M.A.E. Some of the
honors Kapsalis has received over the years include: Huntington
Hartford Foundation Grants (1956, 1959); Robert Rice
Jenkins Prize, 59th Annual Chicago & Vicinity Exhibition
(1956); Pauline Palmer Prize, 63rd Annual Chicago &
Vicinity Exhibition (1960); Honorable Mention, New
Horizons in Sculpture Competition, Chicago (1961);
The Mr. and Mrs. Jule F. Brower Prize, 72nd Chicago &
Vicinity Exhibition (1969).