Tom Kapsalis [b. 1925: Chicago, Illinois]
oil on canvas
50 by 50 inches
Collection of the Illinois State Museum
Like many young men of his generation, Tom Kapsalis’ art education was interrupted by World War II. Upon his return to Chicago, he re-entered the School of the Art Institute, where he was a classmate of Ted Halkin. Both artists share an appreciation for Katherine Kuh and Kathleen Blackshears, two influential teachers in the late 1940s who introduced their students to European Modernism and the art of pre-industrial cultures, respectively. Here, Kapsalis uses a strict geometric organization to create a direct statement about illusionism versus abstraction.