32 Facts About Audrey Amiss

Audrey Joan Amiss was a British artist, whose art was re-discovered and recognised after her death in 2013.

Audrey Amiss formally trained as an artist, studying at the Royal Academy between 1954 and 1958.

Much of this work was not seen publicly; while Audrey Amiss entered her work for submission in exhibitions and prizes or showed work at open exhibitions, she often expressed frustration at the formal art scene and her lack of recognition as an artist.

On having an artwork rejected by an art society, Audrey Amiss wrote to her sister: 'I was once in the tradition of social realism, called the kitchen sink school of painting.

Audrey Amiss described her work as "a visual diary", and her drawings and paintings took their subject matter from the world around her, including still life, landscapes, local scenes, portraits, figures and objects.

Audrey Amiss meticulously recorded and itemised details of her daily life in a series of journals, log books, account books, record books, photo albums and scrapbooks.

Audrey Amiss' artwork is thematically rooted in the real world, with works taking their subject matter from her surroundings, including people, street scenes, objects, landscapes, and nature.

Audrey Amiss described herself as 'an artist, recording all my life the things I see around me'.

Audrey Amiss dated and annotated virtually all of her drawings with their subject matter and date.

Audrey Amiss created compositional works using found material such as junk mail, food packaging and newspaper cuttings, which were pasted into scrapbooks.

Audrey Amiss was born and grew up in Sunderland with her parents, Arthur and Isabelle and sister, Dorothy.

For most of her adult life, Audrey Amiss lived in South London, in Clapham, with her mother Belle, who had sold the family shop in Sunderland to be nearer to her daughter.

Belle died in 1989, after which time Audrey Amiss lived alone in the flat in Clapham, until her death in 2013, though her family maintained contact and provided her with support.

Audrey Amiss was a keen traveller, and went on numerous holidays abroad, both as a solo traveller on package holidays or with her mother.

When visiting China in the 1980s, Audrey Amiss was restrained and arrested, returned to England and sectioned at Tooting Bec Hospital.

From 1977, Audrey Amiss began assembling photographs and other found materials into photograph albums.

Audrey Amiss' photographs were mostly from her holidays and travels, visits to London Zoo and local scenes and objects.

Audrey Amiss added commentary and contextual information to these items, such as where and when the item was purchased, associations to the design, and how it tasted, as well as longer-form associations and thoughts arising from the items.

Audrey Amiss recorded money she spent and received, keeping a log of all her receipts and encounters in shops in a series of account books.

Audrey Amiss collected and stuck down bank and pension statements, postal orders, tickets, envelopes and letters, appointment cards, and sometimes food packaging within these volumes.

Audrey Amiss was an avid letter writer, writing an average of eight letters a day to various people and organisations, including MPs and public figures, charities, newspapers, companies, banks, building societies, friends and family.

Audrey Amiss recorded details of the letters she sent in a series of record books, which itemise each letter sent, with the recipient's name and address, a summary of the contents of the letter, the method of delivery, and other details of interest to her.

Audrey Amiss died in 2013 at the age of 79, having lived in semi-reclusive lifestyle in her later years.

The sketchbooks alone contain an estimated 50,000 individual sketches, with Audrey Amiss often filling entire volumes in one sitting or over the course of a single day.

In 2014, Audrey Amiss' family donated the collection in its entirety to Wellcome Collection, a library and museum in London which focuses on human health and medicine.

Audrey Amiss was often opposed to medical intervention and did not want to be in hospital or on medication.

Audrey Amiss spent time in a number of psychiatric units over the years, and was sectioned in both open and locked wards at Ryhope General Hospital, Cherry Knowle, Warlingham Park Hospital, Tooting Bec Hospital, South Western Hospital, Charles Clinic Chelsea, South London and Maudsley and Elizabeth Ward.

In 2000s, Audrey Amiss launched an appeal to the Mental Health Review Tribunal which was eventually unsuccessful.

Audrey Amiss described herself as a Mental Health Survivor and was involved with local mental health groups and survivor networks.

Audrey Amiss wrote frequent letters about her sense of mistreatment in hospitals, and her distrust of medical institutions and doctors.

Audrey Amiss' life is the subject of a feature-length film, Typist Artist Pirate King, written and directed by BAFTA-nominated film maker Carol Morley and produced by Cairo Cannon, which was filmed in November 2021.

The Audrey Amiss Archive has now been fully catalogued and is available for research by requesting items via the online catalogue.