About: John Ryan (artist)
John Ryan (1925–1992) was an Irish artist, broadcaster, publisher, critic, editor, and publican. Ryan was a well-known man of letters, artist and a key figure in bohemian Dublin of the 1940s and 1950s. He founded Envoy, A Review of Literature and Art, in response to Irish trade and censorship restrictions. Friend and intimate (and sometime benefactor) to a number of struggling artists and writers in the post-war era, such as Patrick Kavanagh and Brendan Behan; Ryan's memoirs, Remembering How We Stood, evoke literary Dublin of the period 1945-55. Involved in numerous literary events and happenings and, with Brian O'Nolan, organised the first Bloomsday.
