The Allied Artists Association (AAA) was an art exhibiting society based in London in the early 20th century.

History

The Allied Artists Association was founded by

Frank Rutter Francis Vane Phipson Rutter (17 February 1876 – 18 April 1937)"Rutter, Frank V. P.", ''Who Was Who'', A & C Black, 1920–2007; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007. Retrieved froukwhoswho8 August 2008. was a British art art critic, c ...

, an art critic of ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'' newspaper, in 1908. Its purpose was to provide a platform for the exhibition and promotion of

modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

art in Britain. The AAA organised exhibitions at various venues, most notably an annual Salon, modelled partly on European

Secessionist Secession is the formal withdrawal of a group from a Polity, political entity. The process begins once a group proclaims an act of secession (such as a declaration of independence). A secession attempt might be violent or peaceful, but the goal i ...

exhibitions, and particularly the

Société des Artistes Indépendants The Société des Artistes Indépendants (, ''Society of Independent Artists'') or Salon des Indépendants was formed in Paris on 29 July 1884. The association began with the organization of massive exhibitions in Paris, choosing the slogan "''sa ...

in Paris. In an advertisement for the AAA in 1917, in the literary journal ''Art and Letters'', it was announced that the aim of the AAA was to organise exhibitions without the use of a selecting jury, with each member having 'the right to show any three works he (or she) pleases and to have one work hung on the line.' The Irish painter Paul Henry was a founder member of the AAA, and exhibited in its first exhibition at the Royal Albert Hall in 1908. As did Vanessa Bell.

Percy Wyndham Lewis Percy Wyndham Lewis (18 November 1882 – 7 March 1957) was a British writer, painter and critic. He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art and edited '' Blast'', the literary magazine of the Vorticists. His novels include ''Tarr'' ...

Christopher Nevinson Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson (13 August 1889 – 7 October 1946) was an English figure and landscape painter, etcher and lithographer, who was one of the most famous war artists of World War I. He is often referred to by his initial ...

, and

Harold Gilman Harold John Wilde Gilman (11 February 187612 February 1919) was a British painter of Interior portrait, interiors, portraits and landscapes, and a founder-member of the Camden Town Group. Early life and studies Harold John Wilde Gilman was th ...

exhibited at the 1912 AAA show at the Royal Albert Hall, and it was also at this exhibition that the novelist

Michael Sadleir Michael Sadleir (25 December 1888 – 13 December 1957), born Michael Thomas Harvey Sadler, was a British publisher, novelist, book collector, and Bibliography, bibliographer. Biography Michael Sadleir was born in Oxford, Oxford, England, the ...

bought the works by the

expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

painter

Wassily Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky ( – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter and art theorist. Kandinsky is generally credited as one of the pioneers of abstract art, abstraction in western art. Born in Moscow, he spent his childhood in ...

, the first time work by this artist had been seen in Britain. Wyndham Lewis and

Edward Wadsworth Edward Alexander Wadsworth (19 October 1889 – 21 June 1949) was an English artist initially associated with the Vorticism movement. In the First World War he was part of a team involved in the transfer of dazzle camouflage designs to ships fo ...

both exhibited

Vorticist Vorticism was a London-based Modernism, modernist art movement formed in 1914 by the writer and artist Wyndham Lewis. The movement was partially inspired by Cubism and was introduced to the public by means of the publication of the Vorticist mani ...

compositions at the AAA show held at the Holland Park Ice Rink in June 1914. The English post-impressionist painter Thomas William Marshall, living in Paris, was also a founder member of the AAA, and exhibited oils painting and watercolours at the Royal Albert Hall from 1908 to 1914. In June 1917, the AAA held a show at the

Grafton Galleries The Grafton Galleries, often referred to as the Grafton Gallery, was an art gallery in Mayfair, London. The French art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel showed the first major exhibition in Britain of Impressionist paintings there in 1905. Roger Fry's t ...

, London, where the art critic, poet, and novelist

Herbert Read Sir Herbert Edward Read, (; 4 December 1893 – 12 June 1968) was an English art historian, poet, literary critic and philosopher, best known for numerous books on art, which included influential volumes on the role of art in education. Read wa ...

sold a number of abstract drawings.James King, ''Herbert Read: The Last Modern'' (London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, Ashgate 1990) 47

References

{{Reflist British artist groups and collectives Post-Impressionism English art