Introduction
My name is Una Richmond. The WIAC first came to my attention when I was studying for my Masters in Art History at Sussex University in 2015. In the Surrealism module, I came across Eileen Agar who was an exhibitor at the WIAC in the 1950s. I had never heard of the club, despite an extensive archive of the club’s minutes, press coverage and exhibition catalogues being held at the Women’s Art Library, Goldsmiths University, the National Art Library at the V&A and the Tate Library.
I completed my Masters Dissertation in 2016, focusing on the 1974 WIAC exhibition ‘The Feminine Eye’. I then went on to complete a PhD at Sussex in 2023. My thesis was entitled ‘No Second Sex in Art: The Women’s International Art Club 1950-1978’.
During my research I was able to access almost all the exhibition catalogues produced by the club from 1900 to 1978 and have amassed a database of over 2,600 exhibitor names. Some of these women are well known today, but the vast majority were successful and celebrated during their careers but have been forgotten or neglected by art history.