ARTISTS INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION

1933 - ?

Artists' International Association

The Artists' International Association was an exhibiting society founded in 1933 by several left-wing artists and writers, originally it was Artists' International and its inaugural exhibition was entitled 'The Social Scene'. They added the word 'Association' to their name when it was reconstituted in 1935 when they nailed their radical politics to the mast with an exhibition entitled 'Artists Against Fascism and War' and the 1937 exhibition 'Twentieth Century German Art' featured works by exile artists living in the United Kingdom serving as a counter-exhibition to the Nazi propaganda exhibition of 'Degenerate Art' with most of the group's early exhibitions held at galleries in the Soho area of London, such as Charlotte Street, Frith Street and Soho Square. In 1940 it published a series of lithographs known as 'Everyman Prints' in large and low-priced editions. By the end of Second World War, the membership numbered over a thousand and in 1947 a gallery, founded by Claude Rogers (1907-1979), was established at 15 Lisle Street, Soho, London which flourished until the lease expired in 1971. In 1953 a new constitution abandoned its left-wing commitment, and it continued solely as an exhibiting society. Edward Bawden designed a business card for the AIA and its membership included Peggy Angus (1904-1993), Pearl Binder (1904-1990), Misha Black (1910-1977), who was the first Chairman, James Edward Buchanan Boswell (1906-1971), Hans Feibusch (1898-1998), brothers Percy Frederick (1897-1970) and Ronald James Horton (1902–1981) and Clifford Hooper Rowe (1904-1989). Other Suffolk artist or member exhibitors include Edward Ardizzone, Eileen Bell, Donnagh McKenna, Tom Phillips, Kate Ponsonby, Vernon Tong, John Verney and Harold Wilfred Yates.




Works by This Artist