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John Behan – Famine Ship UPDATE: THIS MADE 11,500 AT HAMMER
A unique bronze Famine Ship by John Behan is among the lots at Morgan O’Driscoll’s current Irish art online auction which runs until next Monday evening (July 20). The estimate is €10,000-€15,000. Among the leading lots in this auction is art by Donald Teskey, Liam O’Neill, John Shinnors, Mainie Jellett, Markey Robinson and Graham Knuttel. There are 254 lots on offer and the catalogue is online.
John Behan (b.1938) – Bantry Famine Ship
On the face of it you might think the invisible people represented in this powerful and unique bronze sculpture by John Behan did not have much to be grateful for. But at least the downtrodden, starving migrants represented in the ragged, torn and limping Bantry Famine Ship arrived in the 19th century and not the 21st in Europe or the United States. If they made it into Ireland or any other country now they might have to run a gauntlet of attack by social media organised anti immigrant thugs with petrol bombs and other handy implements in a world where basic humanity is in dwindling supply. The sculpture made a hammer price of €14,000 at Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish and International art sale.
Paul Henry’s Cottages on Achill Sound was the top lot of the sale. It made €120,000 at hammer. Other top hammer prices were achieved by Andy Warhol for screenprints of Ingrid Bergman (€70,000) and Jane Fonda (€28,000) and an oil by Donald Teskey (€32,000).
Birds in Flight by John Behan UPDATE: THIS MADE 8,400 AT HAMMER
A tall and significant Birds in Flight sculpture by John Behan will lead Woodwards sale in Cork on February 8. The appealing series of birds in flight by the much loved Irish sculptor who created the Swan fountain at Bishop Lucey Park in Cork city centre is enduringly popular and sought after. This one is estimated at €10,000-€15,000.
Garden lots on offer include a pair of cast iron domed benches (€2,500-€3,500) and a pair of cast iron vases (€1,200-€1,600). Antique furniture pieces like a Georgian walnut card table, an Irish Georgian display cabinet (each €300-€400), a Georgian wine cooler and an Edwardian display cabinet (each €300-€500), a William IV table and a pair of inlaid tube chairs (each €200-€300) are all modestly and realistically estimated. Art includes a pastel by Tom Walsh. The sale is on view all week and the catalogue is online.
King of the Roads by Tom Walsh. UPDATE: THIS MADE 500 AT HAMMER
John Behan’s bronze sculpture Birds in Flight will highlight the online sale at Woodward Auctioneers in Cork on November 23. One of our most renowned contemporary sculptors, Behan is the subject of a new feature-length film titled Odyssey directed by Donald Taylor-Black documenting his involvement with migrant camps in Greece.
A commitment to social justice has always been part of his work and John Behan, now in his mid-80s, has given art workshops to migrants and refugees in Athens. The bronze at Woodward’s is estimated at €8,000-€12,000.
UPDATE: THIS MADE 17,000 AT HAMMER
JOHN BEHAN (B.1938) – FAMINE SHIP. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
This 2024 famine ship by John Behan is lot 109 at Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish art online auction which runs until June 24. The bronze is estimated at €15,000-€20,000. The auction features work by artists as varied as Letitia M Hamilton and Nano Reid to Patrick Hennessy, Harry Kernoff and Barbara Warren. Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst and Sean Scully are on the catalogue along with Brian Maguire, Willie McKeown and Felim Egan. The catalogue is online and the sale will be on view in Skibbereen from June 20.
Connemara Cottages is one of the works by Paul Henry at de Veres timed online sale of outstanding art and sculpture which begins to close from 6 pm on June 13. The catalogue contains gallery standard works by major artists of the 20th Century. There are three paintings by William Scott and five by Paul Henry as well as by Sean Keating, Roderic O’Conor, Mainie Jellet and contemporary works by Callum Innes, Donald Teskey, Elizabeth Magill, Mark Francis and sculpture by Rowan Gillespie and Patrick O’Reilly.
Kyrenia Ship by John Behan comes up at Dolan’s timed online Spring auction. The sale goes online today and will run until Monday, March 20. The sculpture is dated to 2008 and is unique. The Greek Cypriot ship, fifteen metres in length, was built in389 BC. It sank around 288 BC three miles off the coast of Kyrenia. The estimate is €4,000-6,000. The sale comprises Irish art and sculpture, almost 60 collectible bottles of Irish whisky including some very rare Midletons, antique furniture and collectibles including rugs and books.
This watercolour, ink and pencil drawing of Two Female Nudes by the Irish sculptor John Behan sold for £828.75 at Bonhams in London. From the collection of the late design guru Sir Terence Conran the work came up at the sale of the contents of Barton Court, his country house in Berkshire. Conran died in 2020.
Viewing for Whyte’s Irish and International art sale gets underway today at the RDS. There is art by Jack B. Yeats, Paul Henry, Patrick Heron, Louis le Brocquy, Norah McGuinness, Sean Keating, Patrick Scott, Grace Henry, Peter Curling, Howard Helmick, John Behan, Patrick O’Reilly, Edward Delaney and a wide variety of other acclaimed painters and sculptors. Viewing is from 10 am to 5 pm for the next three days and the auction is at 6 pm on Monday.
This bronze by the Irish Ukrainian artist Vadim Tuzov made a hammer price of 4,800 over a top estimate of 3,000 at the white glove James Adam sale of collectors and artists for Ukraine organised by Suzanne MacDougald in Dublin today. All 36 lots sold and made over €90,000. When some generous cash donations are added the sale generated €116,000 for the Irish Red Cross Ukrainian Appeal.
The top lot of the day was another piece of sculpture, ‘Liffey Oar Boat’ made and donated by John Behan RHA. It made €10,000. Rowan Gillespie’s diminutive ‘Kneeling Girl’, a bronze from 1982 and donated by a Co. Meath collector, sold for €6,500 while Orla de Brí’s ‘Cross Bearer’ made €4,600.
The top price for a painting was shared by two works – Colin Davidson’s ‘Study of Seamus Heaney’ and Markey Robinson’s West of Ireland Landscape, both of which made €6,500.
(See post on antiqueandartireland.com for March 31, 2022)
