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22
Exhibiting
With few outlets to exhibit paintings, the Belfast Boys relied on their friendships with shop
and bar owners to display their work. The owner of the Duke of York allowed Campbell
and Dillon to hang a few pictures in his bar and they both exhibited drawings at the corner
window of the Scotch Wool House.
31
The John Lamb Gallery was a room set aside by Arthur
Lamb in his decorating business for his brother, Charles, while he was living in Carraroe.
However, their efforts to attract attention failed. Undeterred, Campbell and the boys regularly
met in Dubarry’s pub and Campbell’s coffee shop. It was probably at one of these meetings
that the Campbell brothers realized that to attract publicity they would need to exhibit as a
group.
Campbell’s Café
was situated on the top floor of an eighteenth-century building on
Donegall Square. Many other novelists, poets and dramatists met the group there to discuss
and debate the arts in Ulster.
31
‘Talking to George Campbell’,
The Irish Times
, 30 June 30, 1962, p. 10. Campbell referred to fourteen
drawings at the woollen house as his first exhibition in Belfast.
fig. 28: Arthur and George Campbell at their
first joint exhibition, 1944
fig.29: Gerard Dillon and George Campbell and
others at their joint exhibition, 1944
fig.30: James MacIntyre, ‘Campbell’s Café,’
fig.31: Daniel O’Neill and George Campbell,
Campbell’s Café, 1947.
Photo; Arthur Campbell. PRONI, D1422/B/123