Background of AICA

Toward the end of the forties, when many schools and diverse movements in art were flourishing, art critics, art historians and art educators, as well as curators from museums of modern art gathered at two congresses at UNESCO Headquarters (1948 and 1949). Their aim was to compare their point of views concerning the vocation of art criticism, to analyse their responsabily in regard to artists and public, and to outline the particular nature of their contributions in relation to developments in the fields of art history. Convening from around the world, they included among them the most prestigious names of the times: André Chastel, Jorge Crespo de la Serna, Pierre Courthion, Charles Estienne, Chou Ling, Miroslav Micko, Sergio Milliet, Marc Sandoz, Gino Severini, James Johnson Sweeney, Albert Tucker, Lionello Venturi, Eduardo Vernazza, Marcel Zohar, Paul Pierens, Herbert Readand others.

Following those two international congresses at UNESCO, the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) was founded in 1950 and was admitted in 1951 to the rank of NGO. AICA comprise various experts anxious to develop international co-operation in the fields of artistic creation, dissemination and cultural development .