Michael Behnan

Nov. 25

Behnan was born in Pakistan, and grew up in Prescott Ontario. He attended the University of Toronto where he received an Honours Fine Art degree. He often demonstrates his remarkable ability to turn simple visual ideas of folk art into many one person exhibits across Canada as well as South America. His graphic art has appeared in many different newspapers and magazines. However, at the young age of 35 he lost the battle to cancer and passed away. The pieces we have in our permanent collection are his illustration for the poem “Foam” by a German author named Hans Magnus Enzensberger. The author was born in 1929, in Germany, and lived through the second world war. Much of the poem is a commentary on how horrible human nature can become, which can be seen in Behnan’s haunting illustrations.