ARTISTS of the WORLD UNITE!

Vincent Miller, founder and original publisher of International Artist, tells us why and how he launched this much-loved magazine 25 years ago

In 1997 had been publishing Australian Artist magazine for 13 years. From its very first issue it immediately became the bestselling art magazine in the country available by subscription and on the newsstands. The existing magazines in Australia at the time were mostly low circulation journals focusing on art criticism, art history and museums-hardly a mention of the living artists creating great paintings in the here and now. And certainly nothing about the inspiration and technique artists used in making their work.

Such was the success of Australian Artist, the magazine for artists by artists, that I got to thinking it might be a good idea to extend this winning concept to a wider audience. Today Australia, tomorrow the world!

Looking at the artists' magazines being published in other countries in 1997 I saw that, while each publication covered their local artists well enough, that's where they stopped. I had a gut feeling that practicing artists around the world would be more than interested to see what artists in other countries were creating and all the different subjects and techniques they were using. That's when I decided to take the plunge and launch International Artist magazine to a worldwide audience available by subscription only.

I knew I needed three things if this new magazine was going to work: