Alumni
gaining knowledge is priority for architecture alumnus
By Amy Milgrub Marshall
According to Yannis Tsilis (’95 M.Arch.), choosing his classes at Penn State made him feel like a kid in a candy store. “I was enthusiastic because I had so many choices,” he remembers, explaining he had enrolled in Penn State’s interdisciplinary master of architecture program because it would allow him to take a wide variety of courses, from architecture to art, theatre to philosophy. “Both the learning procedure and the academic environment constitute a unique experience that altered my architectural thinking,” he says.
Since graduating from Penn State, Tsilis has continued to pursue his interdisciplinary interests, applying his architectural knowledge in a variety of settings. He has worked at the Architecture School of Athens, in a housing construction company and in private architectural firms, racking up numerous honors along the way.
He fondly remembers many of his Penn State professors, praising them for their guidance, support and stimulating discussions. Several who played an important role in helping Tsilis complete his thesis were Romolo Martemucci, Donald Kunze, Loukas Kalisperis, Dan Willis and former faculty member Sydney Cohn.
A native of Greece, Tsilis earned his bachelor’s degree at the Architecture School of Athens. His undergraduate thesis addressed an old deserted factory, the first electric power factory in Athens, and led to his interest in industrial archaeology, specifically the remains of machines with no contemporary function. His master’s thesis focused on the site of the Compagnie Francaise des Mines in Lavrion, an industrial community outside Athens that was once one of the most important mining towns in Greece.
Tsilis finished his degree in 1995, but he was not yet finished with the Compagnie Francaise des Mines. After graduation he joined the staff of the Architecture School of Athens at the University of Athens, which had just purchased the old factory. The Architecture School was taking over the execution of the restoration drawings and the factory’s transformation into a contemporary technological center.“I was very lucky working with that, and my luck continued for the next year,” he says. In 1996, the Europan Federation, which oversees the prestigious Europan competition for young architects, selected the district of Kyprianos as a site for that year’s competition. Kyprianos was a workers’ district built by the Compagnie Francaise des Mines so the miners could live as close as possible to the mines.
Tsilis and his teammate, Vassilis Ganiatsas, won the 1996 Europan competition. “It was obviously a very gratifying and humbling experience that helped me establish myself,” he notes.
The theme that year was “Constructing the town upon the town, transformation of contemporary urban sites.” Tsilis and Ganiatsas addressed ways to retain Kyprianos’ industrial heritage while revitalizing the district. They proposed that south-facing “sun houses,” extensions enclosed by glass that date back to at least Byzantine times, be added to the housing clusters that had been built for the miners. In the winter, the sun house’s shutters are opened, allowing the sunlight to stream in and provide warmth. In the summer, the windows open to the courtyard, allowing for passive cooling and ventilation. In addition to “responding to the urgent plea for a sustainable environment,” Tsilis says the sun houses “constitute a symbolic gesture, a valid reference and a common denominator of a holistic strategy for all partial interventions.” Private financers are currently in the process of obtaining permits to build four of the structures.
After garnering one of the most coveted honors for European architects, Tsilis kept up his winning streak. In 1998, he formed a private firm with Ganiatsas and Katerina Kouroumali, and they won a number of prestigious commissions between 2000 and 2003. He then worked in a housing construction company, designing large housing complexes in affluent Athens suburbs, and since 2005 has been working in a firm that does architecture and landscape architecture work for public spaces and housing complexes.
Tsilis says architectural firms in Greece are generally much smaller than their American counterparts, but the profession is moving toward consolidation of some of the small firms with larger international companies. He notes there was a construction boom preceding the 2004 Olympics, but construction pace has decreased dramatically.
For Tsilis, working for a bigger firm that offers a bigger salary is not important. “Early on I decided that I would seek employment in places where I would learn rather than gain financial benefits … That’s one of the reasons I came to Penn State and is the reason that I always work with different individuals doing architectural competitions,” he says. “Work for learning and knowledge, not for financial benefits,” he advises. “Money will follow.”painter is grateful he found his calling
By Amy Milgrub Marshall
“You have to get out there and experience life, and find what you really want to do. You have to follow your ‘bliss,’” advises Michael Fratangelo (’01 B.S. Art Ed.).
Pretty sage advice from someone who graduated from Penn State just five years ago. But Fratangelo is fortunate in that he found his “bliss”—painting—while at Penn State, and then quickly established a fulfilling career in which he combines painting and sharing his artistic passion with young people. By day he’s a middle school art teacher, and by night he’s an artist working out of his personal studio in suburban Pittsburgh.
He says being an active painter helps his students relate to him and aids him in earning their respect. “I believe that if you’re going to teach art, you should be an artist,” he explains. “When my students see an article about me, or see my artwork somewhere, it strikes a chord with them.”
Fratangelo’s work recently gained an international audience when his painting, Iraq I, was exhibited in the Florence Biennale, a contemporary art exhibition established to enhance multicultural understanding. A member of the selection committee discovered his eye-catching work on a Web site, “Outsider Art” (www.outsiderart.info/fratangelo.htm), and invited him to participate in the exhibition, which took place in Florence, Italy, in December 2005. “The jury said my use of color was unique and that it brought emotion and the feeling of an event to life, through color,” Fratangelo notes.
Iraq I is part of a seven-painting series featuring Michael’s modern expressionistic interpretations of black and white photos of the Iraqi war from The New York Times. While his colorful images are powerful, he says they are not politically motivated and are intended to present a documentation of our time. He chose Iraq I for the exhibition “because of the interplay of the American soldiers and the Iraqi children. I found it alarming and fascinating that only the Iraqi children were looking directly at the soldiers, whereas the Iraqi adults and teenager diverted their gazes.”
Despite his current success, Fratangelo did not intend to study art in college. He started at Penn State as a health policy administration major, but after some soul-searching, switched to art education. In one of his first studio art classes, his eye for color caught the attention of associate professor John Bowman, who encouraged him to pursue art as a career. “It was in John Bowman’s class that, for the first time, I really felt like I could be a painter. In his class, I just started seeing colors in nature, people, objects and social situations that I hadn’t noticed before, and that were not at all objectively realistic,” Fratangelo explains. “I realized I had a sense of feeling and listening to color in my body. I started to understand I could feel a color and give it a texture and sound in my mind. It was readily apparent that I was processing everything internally in a different way from my peers in the studio classes. Professor Bowman encouraged me, and art became my passion.”
Afraid of becoming a “starving artist,” Fratangelo chose to major in art education with an emphasis on painting and also earned a minor in art history. “Balancing teaching and my art is not easy, but it’s definitely possible,” he says. “As a teacher, you grow so much as a person. I think you grow more in this career than in any other.”
Fratangelo praises two of his Penn State teachers, Mary Ann Stankiewicz, professor of art education, and Paul Bolin, former art education faculty member, for serving as both inspirations and mentors. He says they both were generous with their time and took a sincere interest in their students.
As far as his artwork, Fratangelo gets his inspiration from colors and shapes, and his desire to uplift and touch the human soul through his paintings. According to his artist’s philosophy statement on his Web site (www.fratangelo.com), he strives to “transcend the physical world” in the subjects he paints. “I believe making art to be a public service and a private calling,” he explains in his philosophy statement. “When I paint, I feel as if I am a conductor conducting a symphony orchestra in color. Each color and shape I use acts as an instrument producing a sound. The color and shape only works if it hits the right note in the whole of the painting (symphony). Each one of my paintings is an individual symphony.”
Fratangelo sold his first painting, his depiction of Pablo Picasso, in the Ellsworth Avenue Arts Festival in Pittsburgh in summer 2002. Now represented by Bella Arte Gallery in Pittsburgh, owned by Rena and Ed Klump, he recently completed his Nature and God series.
Fratangelo says he was meant to be an artist. “I’m passionate about it. Being an artist is who I am,” he explains. “I feel like I found my path—my unique gift. Every person has a unique gift, but it seems one does not always discover it. I’m lucky, and very fulfilled.”
from fraternity brothers to art collectors
When David Pincus (’48 B.A. Arts and Letters) and Joseph Shein (’49 B.A. Arts and Letters) were fraternity brothers at Penn State in the late 1940s, they probably never imagined a shared interest in contemporary art would link them to each other, and to Penn State, many years later. Today, both Pincus and Shein, with their wives, Gerry and Janet, are noted art collectors and contributors to the Palmer Museum of Art’s permanent collection. The Palmer’s presentation of contemporary art has been greatly enhanced by their gifts to the museum, notably Gilbert and George’s Cold, 1983 (gift of the Pincuses in 1992) and Marisol’s Blackfoot Delegation to Washington, 1916, 1993 (gift of the Sheins in 1999), among many others. Significant works of art from both couples’ private holdings were also on view in special exhibitions at the museum in fall 2005.
David and Gerry Pincus, who live in Wynnewood, Pa., outside Philadelphia, are longtime collectors of contemporary art and own works by artists such as Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Jasper Johns and Andy Warhol. They also collect contemporary photography, and it was selections from their collection of Nan Goldin photographs that were on view at the museum last fall in an exhibition titled Fantastic Tales: The Photography of Nan Goldin. Considered controversial by some, Goldin’s photographs are a testament to the Pincuses’ feelings about contemporary art and its role in our society. According to Joyce Henri Robinson, curator at the Palmer, the couple believes “edgy” works such as Goldin’s photographs, which have inspired debate about censorship and other issues, have an important place in contemporary art discourse because they reveal “essential truths about humanity.”
Joe and Janet Shein also live outside Philadelphia, in Merion, Pa. They began collecting art in the 1950s and have since amassed an impressive collection of folk, outsider (“self-taught”) and contemporary art, including works by William Hawkins, Thornton Dial Sr., Clementine Hunter and Sam Doyle, among others.
The fall 2005 exhibition featuring works from their private collection was titled Wos up man? Selections from the Joseph D. and Janet M. Shein Collection of Self-Taught Art. In their collectors’ statement in the exhibition catalogue, they note they have always been drawn to works of art “in which passion is expressed in observable form.” While acknowledging the masters who have trained or influenced others, they praise those self-taught artists who “can and do express themselves in their own manner, immersed in their own concept of life, death, love and other senses and values.”
Both couples pursued their interest in collecting art while building successful careers. David Pincus was longtime CEO and chairman of Pincus Brothers–Maxwell, a Philadelphia-based manufacturer of men’s tailored clothing. Gerry received a nursing degree from the University of Pennsylvania. The Pincuses are philanthropists on a worldwide scale, with a special interest in pediatric AIDS and famine relief.
Joe Shein practiced law in Philadelphia for decades and continues to work on cases when he’s not playing golf or going to art auctions. Janet graduated from the School of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania and worked as an interior designer.
