Reconciliation by Thomas Kapsalis I WAS BORN IN CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, IN 1925. I visited Germany two times in my life. <strong>The</strong> first time was when I was in the U.S. Army infantry during World War II and fought in the Battle <strong>of</strong> the Bulge, was wounded, and became a prisoner <strong>of</strong> war for five months in Neubrandenburg, Germany, at Stalag II A. <strong>The</strong> second time was during the year <strong>of</strong> 1953-1954. I received the <strong>Fulbright</strong> 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 Weissenh<strong>of</strong> Housing Project) in Stuttgart. <strong>The</strong>se 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 <strong>of</strong> 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 <strong>of</strong> 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 pr<strong>of</strong>essor at the School <strong>of</strong> the Art Institute <strong>of</strong> Chicago for over 51 years. In fact, I am still teaching one day a week at the School <strong>of</strong> the Art Institute <strong>of</strong> 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. <strong>The</strong> 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 <strong>Fulbright</strong> scholarship. It has affected my life in such a positive way. After coming back to Chicago from the year in Germany, the dean <strong>of</strong> the School <strong>of</strong> the Art Institute <strong>of</strong> 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 <strong>of</strong> 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 <strong>of</strong> war in Germany from December 1944 to May 1945. In 1949 Kapsalis earned a B.A.E. from the School <strong>of</strong> the Art Institute <strong>of</strong> Chicago and in 1953 went to Stuttgart on a <strong>Fulbright</strong>-Hays Fellowship to study at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Kunst. From 1954 until the present Kapsalis has been Associate Pr<strong>of</strong>essor in the Drawing and Painting Department at the School <strong>of</strong> the Art Institute <strong>of</strong> Chicago, where in 1957 he earned his M.A.E. Some <strong>of</strong> 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); <strong>The</strong> Mr. and Mrs. Jule F. Brower Prize, 72nd Chicago & Vicinity Exhibition (1969).
Designated an “Entartete Künstler” during the Third Reich Willi Baumeister later taught in Stuttgart. Here, a portrait <strong>of</strong> the artist taken by Kapsalis. Beauty in destruction, ruins in Stuttgart. 50 51
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