Henry Salkauskas was born Henrikus Salkauskas in Lithuania in 1925. As a boy he was influenced by his uncle Eugeneus who painted watercolours, but like most of his generation he was caught in the turmoil of World War II. After the war he began to study art, first at the L’Ecole des Arts et Metiers in Paris and then at the Freiburg university from 1946-49, the year he came to Australia with his mother, Ona-Anna Salkauskas .
In Sydney he found it hard to make a living as an artist, so he turned to house painting, a trade that was more easily understood by the locals. Nevertheless he found a sympathetic artistic community in Sydney in the circle around the Contemporary Art Society. He exhibited widely, and encouraged others to be involved in his long term interest of printmaking. When he died suddenly in 1979, his friend and colleague Nancy Borlase wrote of how she would miss 'the big, blond, amiable Lithuanian’.
His sudden death, from a blood clot that made its way to his heart, was seen by friends as the direct result of a fall he had while working as a house painter.
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- Writers:
- Staff Writer
Joanna Mendelssohn
- Date written:
- 1999
- Last updated:
- 2012
