Joseph Behan

Joseph Behan: 'Pictures Of My Friends' Exhibition

The George Bernard Shaw Room in Carlow Central Library will host an exhibition of artistic work by Joseph Behan in the first two weeks of November 2007. The exhibition will be called 'Pictures Of My Friends'.

Artist and sculptor Joseph was born during the early 1950s in County Kildare but emigrated to London at 10 years of age. He received some formal art training from the Hammersmith School of Art and exhibited work annually with the Royal Society of Painters and at the Camden Arts Centre between 1969 and 1975. He worked between Ireland and Dusseldorf, Germany as a freelance painter in art studios before moving to Berlin where he hosted his first solo exhibition 'Scenes From Irish Life'. At this time Joseph was also resident portrait artist undertaking commissions and the decorator of new bistros and cafes in Moabit where he remained until 1988.

On returning home he became involved in the age old process of modeling terra-cotta clay, working with his friend Paddy Murphy, the well known Enniscorty Potter from Kaolin Bridge. Prior to building his own kiln Joseph availed of Paddy's priceless guidance and learnt the art of mould making in plaster studying the classic masters of the Renaissance in their use of terra-cotta.

Most of his sculptures found good homes and Behan once again emigrated to Uelzen, in Niedersachen, Germany where he set himself up as a portrait artist. While there he held an exhibition called 'The Circus of Life'. After three years Joseph returned home and began producing CD-ROMs which brought together all his art work together with poetry on rural provincial life in Ireland in the 1980s as well as all the characters, places and animals he befriended during the last twenty years. The CD-ROM is available to anyone interested in reading his poetry.