Franciszka Themerson

Biography

The daughter of the artist, Jakub Weinles, she was born in Warsaw in 1907. She graduated from the Academy of Fine Art in Warsaw with great distinction, in 1931.

From 1938 to 1940 she lived in Paris, and then from 1940 lived in London until her death in 1988. She was principally a painter, although, throughout her life, she worked in several other fields of the visual arts: illustration, stage design and graphic design.

She collaborated with her husband, the writer Stefan Themerson, on experimental films, Apteka [Pharmacy] (1930), Europa (1931–1932), Drobiazg Melodyjny [Musical Moment] (1933), Zwarcie [Short Circuit] (1935) and Przygoda Czlowieka Poczciwego [The Adventures of a Good Citizen] (1937), only the last of which survives, along with two films they made together in Britain, Calling Mr Smith(1943), an account of Nazi atrocities in Poland and The Eye and the Ear(1944/45), investigating the visualisation of music. She illustrated books for children written by her husband and others, and in 1948 she founded with her husband the adventurous publishing company, Gaberbocchus Press, of which she was the art director. The press was named after a Latinisation of 'Jabberwocky', from Lewis Carroll's 'Alice' coined by Carroll's uncle, Hassard Dodgson. In 31 years the Gaberbocchus Press published over sixty titles, including works by Alfred Jarry, Kurt Schwitters, Bertrand Russell and the Themersons themselves. Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Roi was its flagship publication, published in many editions and still in print. The Gaberbocchus edition is a most apposite evocation of the spirit of Jarry's grotesque fable. The text, which was hand-written directly onto lithographic plates by the translator, Barbara Wright -- interspersed with Themerson's conte crayon illustrations - is printed on loud yellow pages. Themerson's contributions as illustrator contributed enormously to the autograph originality of design of Gaberbocchus books. Apart from appearing in many journals worldwide, several collections of her drawings have been published as books: 'Forty Drawings for Friends, London 1940-42' (1943) The Way It Walks (1954); Traces of Living (1969); Music (1998).

Her theatre designs included marionette productions of Ubu Roi, Ubu Enchainé and Threepenny Opera, mostly made for the Marionetteatern in Stockholm, in the 1960s, which toured worldwide for decades, and were rewarded with international acclaim. Many of these were exhibited at the National Theatre in 1993.

Her major one-man exhibitions - of paintings and drawings - include those at Gallery One in 1957 and 1959; Drian Galleries, 1963; Zachęta, Warsaw, 1964; New Gallery, Belfast, 1966; Demarco, Edinburgh, 1968; A retrospective at Whitechapel Art Gallery, 1975; Gruenebaum, New York City, 1978; Łódź, Warsaw, Wrocław, 1981–1982; Nordjyllands Kunstmusum, Aalborg, 1991; Gardner Centre, University of Sussex, 1992; Gdańsk, 1993; Redfern Gallery, 1993; National Theatre, 1993; Royal Festival Hall, 1993. Unposted Letters, Imperial War Museum in 1996; Kordegarda, Warsaw, 1998; Art First, London, 1999 and 2001; CK Zamek, Poznań, 2004; Europe House, London, 2013; GV Art Gallery, London 2013; Muzeum Sztuki Łódź, 2013.

A collection of Themerson's greetings cards, called Gaberbocchus some of the old favourites is in the collection of the National Library of Poland.

Other Books illustrated by Franciszka Themerson