In April 1937, less than 24 hours before the Nazi Condor Legion destroyed the Basque town of Gernika, W.G. Constable, founding Director of the Courtauld, was addressing the closing plenary of the First British Artists’ Congress.
Constable was a key supporter of the event organised by the Artists International Association which had itself been founded in late 1933 by a group of largely unknown artists and designers in their twenties.
In less than four years membership had grown to over 900, two landmark exhibitions had been staged and many of Britain’s best-known artists had set aside aesthetic rivalries to unite behind shared social values and political concerns.
By reaching upwards generationally and outwards politically, the AIA’s strategically astute young founders had succeeded in creating one of the most significant popular front organisations of the era.
Andy Friend’s new book Comrades in Art, Artists Against Fascism, 1933-43 (Thames and Hudson 2025) sets the rich history of the AIA in a global context. Drawing on a range of recently discovered sources, this talk will ask why the AIA’s diverse achievements have too often been overlooked by art historians and explore how the story of its first decade has relevance for our own time.
Organised by Professor Steve Edwards, Manton Professor of British Art and Director of the Manton Centre for British Art, The Courtauld.
With contributions from:
Andy Friend studied English at Cambridge, was involved in community politics in the 1970s and worked for the Greater London Council in the 1980s before becoming Chief Executive of the City of Melbourne in the 1990s. After returning from Australia, he became Chief Executive of John Laing plc, the listed Construction and Infrastructure Group, and chaired a number of infrastructure funds. In 2017 Andy published Ravilious & Co; the Pattern of Friendship (Thames and Hudson 2017) and co-curated the eponymous Towner Gallery touring exhibition which attracted 100,000 visitors. He subsequently wrote John Nash – The Landscape of Love and Solace (Thames and Hudson, 2020) and co-curated its accompanying Towner touring exhibition. Artists International – The First Decade, curated by Andy, is showing in the Marie-Louise von Motescisky Archive Gallery at Tate Britain until March 2026.