Child Holocaust Survivor Henri Korn and Melbourne Visual Artist Thomas Delohery have been awarded the much sought after 2020 Annual Arts Grants from the City of Melbourne.

Artist Thomas Delohery, Mayor Of Melbourne Sally Capp and Holocaust Survivor Henri Korn at Melbourne Town Hall.

This Grant will ensure the publication and Launch of Henri’s Third Book in April in the NGV on the 26th of April 2020. The Book is a ‘Memoir’ and relates to Henri’s first steps in Melbourne as a 20-year-old in 1950, his jobs, the City of Melbourne as it was back then seen through European Eyes, and the now famous Australian Artists that Henri hung out with that helped Fashion the City of Melbourne and Australia in to what it is today.

This Third Book will complete a trilogy describing Henri’s lost early childhood, the years of the Holocaust, the sense of belonging to nowhere at the age of 20 and the difficulties in settling into a strange environment without adequate language. This third book will give Henri great peace of mind and a sense of achievement as he approaches his 90th year.

Thomas Delohery is a visual artist based in Melbourne since 2010. Delohery has produced a number of exhibitions around the theme of Trauma and the Body, especially in relation to the Holocaust. Thomas suffers with PTSD since he was attacked at his workplace as he has taught visual art for many years before that.

Henri and Thomas have become good friends over the last number of years and have mutual respect for each other. Thomas has painted Henri many times and was a Black Swan Portrait Prize now renamed The Lester Prize finalist with a portrait of Henri in 2016.

Next year will be 75 years since the Holocaust. Henri and Thomas plan to give an artists’ talk at the launch of Henri’s book in the NGV on the 26th of April which will focus on healing from political and personal trauma and how Melbourne has had a positive impact on both of them. Thomas’s artwork will be on the front cover of Henri’s third book. His art will also be projected on a big screen behind them at the launch of the next chapter of their journey together.