Corbett vs. Dempsey

One of Chicago’s great abstractionists, painter Thomas Kapsalis has been an important artist and educator since the late ‘40s, when he graduated from the School of the Art Institute. A prisoner of war in Germany, captured during the Battle of the Bulge, Kapsalis returned to continue his pursuit of art-making, eventually returning to Germany in the early ‘50s on a Fullbright-Hays Fellowship to study with Willi Baumeister. He has taught at SAIC since 1954, and his work has been exhibited in numerous group and solo shows. Among the honors bestowed upon Kapsalis are Huntington Harford Foundation Grants (1956, 1959); Robert Rice Jenkins Prize, Chicago & Vicinity Exhibition, Art Institute of Chicago (1956); Pauline Palmer Prize, Chicago & Vicinity Exhibition, AIC (1960); Mr. & Mrs. Jule F. Brower Prize, Chicago & Vicinity Exhibition, AIC (1969). Corbett vs. Dempsey’s inventory includes paintings and also a small number of sculptural works by Kapsalis, most of which were constructed in the 1950s.