Henrikas Salkauskas
Women in Blue
pastel and mixed media
Initalled and dated upper right 'HS 55'
47 x 61.5 cm
$1800 including GST
Exhibitions:
Contemporary Art Society, 1955, no. 163, 12 gns.
Comment; Henrikas (Henry) Salkauskas (1925-1979) was born in Lithuania, arriving in Australia in 1949. He worked in a stone quarry in Canberra for two years while making linocut prints which he began to exhibit. He moved to Sydney in 1951 and worked for the New South Wales Government Railways and Tramways, painting stations. He also worked as a house-painter for the rest of his life. He became a committee-member (from 1957) of the Sydney branch of the Contemporary Art Society of Australia and a founder of the Sydney Printmakers in 1961. He enthusiastically promoted printmaking and helped organize exhibitions of graphic art, nationally and internationally.Salkauskas won over sixty art awards, among them the Perth Prize (1963) and the grand prize for the Mirror-Waratah Festival (1963), Sydney. The Art Gallery of New South Wales held a retrospective exhibition of his work in 1981 and established the Henry Salkauskas Contemporary Art purchase award. Women in Blue is the culmination of a series of images produced by Salkauskas (such as the linocuts Three Women, 1953and Women in the Rain, 1954). The fact that it was exhibited at the Contemporary Art Society adds to its significance.