Franciszka Themerson: Stories from the Life - Early Paintings and Drawings from Warsaw and London

The Ben Uri Research Unit (BURU) is happy to present Franciszka Themerson’s Stories from the Life. The exhibition includes the paintings and drawings from her student days at the School of Fine Art in Warsaw and some of her later works in London. Most of them have never been exhibited in England. Of the early works, made in Poland there are 3 paintings, and 19 drawings made between 1929 and 1933, which will be shown in the main gallery. When the exhibition ends, they will be donated to the National Museum in Warsaw.

The lower galleries will include works from the 1940s when Franciszka begins to experiment with abstract forms and bright colours.

Even though Franciszka Themerson illustrated and designed books, was director of Gaberbocchus Press, made films with her husband Stefan Themerson, designed for the theatre, she was primarily a painter. Her paintings developed from the very tightly crafted, densely coloured scenes of events within interiors of the earliest works, to later images whose meaning could be read in several different ways. The comparison is both puzzling and interesting.

The exhibition is accompanied by a small catalogue about the early works, edited by Jasia Reichardt and designed by Pedro Cid Proença.