John Behan RHA, Ireland’s foremost sculptor in bronze, celebrates his 75th birthday this autumn. To mark this auspicious occasion Solomon Fine Art is delighted to be hosting a highly anticipated solo exhibition of his new bronzes and drawings.

John Behan RHA is firmly established as a sculptor of international stature and can be credited with playing a major part in the development of sculpture in Ireland over the last fifty years. Born in Dublin in 1938, he began an apprenticeship in metalwork and welding, before moving onto formal training at the National College of Art & Design in Dublin, Ealing Art College in London and the Royal Academy School in Oslo. Behan was a founder member of both the New Artists group in 1962 and Dublin’s innovative Project Art Centre in Dublin in 1967 and also co-founded the Dublin Art Foundry in 1970. He has been awarded many honours over the years and became a Member of the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1990, having been an Associate of the Academy since 1973. He is also a member of Aosdána. Behan was appointed to the Arts Council of Ireland from 1973 to 1978 and was conferred an honorary Doctor of Literature by NUI Galway in 2000, the same day his large commissioned sculpture Twin Spires was unveiled at the university campus.

The Office of Public Works commissioned Arrival, a monumental bronze sculpture of a famine ship, (7m long x 8m high) with 150 disembarking bronze figures on deck, which was presented to the United Nations by the Government of Ireland in 2000. It is proudly sited outside the UN Buildings in New York. Another monumental Behan Famine Ship, the National Famine Memorial, is sited at the base of Croagh Patrick in Murrisk, Co. Mayo and was unveiled by President Mary Robinson in 1996. Other major commissions include the Flight of the Earls Monument, Rathmullen, Co Donegal (2007) and Wings of the World in Shenzhen Airport, China (1992). Notable public collections include Dublin City Gallery: the Hugh Lane, the Crawford Municipal Gallery, Cork, the National Gallery of Ireland and the Arts Councils of Ireland, North and South.