In 1982 the Arts Council initiated a special project to provide a visual image to mark the centenary of James Joyce’s birth. The Council invited six Irish painters to make a painting, two of which were reproduced on a poster and circulated around the world in 1982 as the official James Joyce Centenary Poster.
The Joycentenary Posters were produced and published by the Arts Council in association with Bord Fáilte Eireann and the Department of Foreign Affairs, Dublin. The posters are taken from original works of art by Charles Tyrrell and Patrick Hickey.
The artists responded to the Council's brief to provide a visual response to the excellence of James Joyce's writings - in very different ways. Patrick Hickey's collage combines fragments of text from Finnegans Wake with line drawings of Joyce and of Dublin in what is an essentially graphic response. Charles Tyrrell responds through abstract means in a diptych executed on board.
The posters were designed by Bill Murphy and printed by Irish Printers.
Paintings were also commissioned from Brian Bourke, Felim Egan and Barrie Cooke.