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Studio: a brief history
Studio was first published in April 1893 under the title The Studio: An Illustrated Magazine of Fine and Applied Art. It rapidly established itself as one of the most successful fine art periodicals in the English-speaking world. Among others, it featured the work of the illustrator Aubrey Beardsley – who even designed an elegant cover – and the architects Charles Rennie Mackintosh and CFA Voysey. It was one of the first art magazines to adopt photomechanical reproduction, a process that would dominate art publishing for a century.
In the years after World War I, The Studio slowly espoused Impressionism, Futurism and Cubism, as it followed a middle-of-the-road path to maintain its high circulation. Then, early in World War II, its offices in London’s Leicester Square were bombed. Aficionados claimed that the Luftwaffe deliberately targeted Studio because of its cultural importance. While this claim was rather implausible, it is true that significant back stock and numerous old files and records were lost. These could have given historians today a clearer idea about the past circulation and distribution of the journal at home and overseas.
In the post-war years, the then Editor, GS Whittet, worked hard to regain subscribers. The magazine was redesigned by David Pelham (well-known for his work for Penguin Books), and its title was changed to Studio International (incorporating The Studio) to reflect its increasing overseas influence. In 1968 Peter Townsend was appointed Editor, and Charles Harrison joined him as Assistant Editor. The publication won the vital overseas support of the British Council, and also of the Arts Council of Great Britain.
When Richard Cork, art historian and art critic for The London Evening Standard, took over from Townsend in the mid-1970s, he transformed Studio International into a much-respected and truly contemporary art journal. Michael Spens, an award-winning architect, had served on the Arts Council of Great Britain for Scotland from l978 before becoming Editor in l980.
In 2000 Studio International was one of the first art magazines to embrace the internet and become an e-journal, to be accompanied by special issues and yearbooks. The online journal now enjoys a worldwide readership, with more than one million page views per year. Once again, as it did in the 1890s, by harnessing contemporary technology before most of its rivals, Studio (International) continues its role as one of the world’s leading art journals.
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