Comrades in Art: Artists Against Fascism

This showcase illuminates the creative outputs and personal histories of eleven foundational figures from the Artists International Association (AIA), spotlighting Peggy Angus, Pearl Binder, James Boswell, James Fitton, Margaret Fitton, James Holland, Percy Horton, Peter Laszlo Peri, Betty Rea, Cliff Rowe, and Nan Youngman. Displayed alongside their pieces are works created by distinguished AIA contributors such as Ithell Colquhoun, Dame Laura Knight, Paul Nash, and Lucien Pissarro, who backed the movement and its initiatives advocating for global peace, cultural advancement, and cross-border solidarity.

Formed in 1933, the AIA sought to bring together creative practitioners in opposition to warfare and fascism, mobilising solidarity across the European continent amid the Spanish Civil War and resisting the ascendancy of General Francisco Franco. Spanning diverse artistic styles, the collective additionally championed the democratisation of art through low-cost lithographic prints and public wall murals.

Drawing on detailed original research across historical archives and public collections, this presentation was devised by writer and curator Andy Friend, developed in conjunction with his Thames & Hudson volume Comrades in Art: Artists against Fascism, 1933-1943, introduced by Frances Spalding.

Standing as the most exhaustive survey of the AIA ever mounted and the first major presentation in more than four decades to take the association as its primary subject, the project expands upon Friend's earlier archival showcase held at Tate Britain's Marie-Louise Von Motesiczky Archive Gallery between July 2024 and April 2026.

Representing the third artistic venture uniting Andy Friend and Towner Eastbourne, this display builds upon their earlier collaborative successes, Ravilious & Co: The Pattern of Friendship (2017–2018) and John Nash: The Landscape of Love and Solace (2021).