The Themersons

They were united by love – love for each other and of film. In their Warsaw years, film was the most important sphere of the Themersons’ artistic activity. Between 1930 and 1937, they made five avant-garde art films (three of them are lost), including The Pharmacy (1930), Europe (1931-32), The Melodic Trifle (1933), The Short Circuit (with Witold Lutosławski’s music; 1935) and The Adventure of a Good Man (with Stefan Kisielewski’s music; 1937). To make the films, the Themersons’ used new, original techniques and methods; they animated their photograms using a trick table they had constructed themselves, made collages and photomontages, and combined all these elements with one another. In 1935, they founded the Cooperative of Film Authors, probably the first cooperative in Europe, whose task was, among other things, to assist artists in the production and distribution of independent films. They organized the first shows of French and English avant-garde films in Poland. They also created the f.a. (art film) magazine, published in three languages, precursory for film criticism and theory.

In Warsaw, the Themersons shared yet another passion with their audience; they created richly illustrated children’s books. Franciszka had already collaborated as an illustrator with such authors as Jan Brzechwa, Julian Tuwim and Maria Kownacka, and from 1931 onwards she illustrated books written by Stefan. In this way, such works as Mr. Tom is building a house, The Post Office, The Birth of Letters, Jacuś in an Enchanted City and others were created, each of them containing unusual typographic solutions.

In 1937, in search of new inspirations, they left for France, where they were separated for two years by the war. Franciszka was delegated to work for the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile in London, Stefan served in the army in France. While still in France, they both continued to create their works; she illustrated children’s books for the local Flammarion publishing house and collaborated with the Polish press, and he published in Wiadomości Literackie and a supplement to Dziennik Polski, and experimented with colour film.

In 1942, after many attempts, Stefan managed to reach London, where Franciszka had been working as a cartographer in the Film Office of the Polish Ministry of Information and Documentation.

London was their last place of residence; they spent the rest of their lives in the capital of England. In 1948, they founded the independent publishing house Gaberboccus Press, which operated for 31 years, publishing the so-called bestlookers, i.e. books with unique graphic designs, instead of bestsellers. The focus was on experimental literature; the 60 titles include the first English translations of Alfred Jarry’s King Ubu, Stylistic Exercises by Raymond Queneau, Europa by Anatol Stern, as well as Dadaist poems by Kurt Schwitters and Raoul Hausmann, The Good Citizen’s Alphabet by Bertrand Russell, two collections of Franciszka’s drawings as well as Stefan’s literary works.

Stefan Themerson’s literary output is very diverse and ambiguous in terms of genre. It includes six novels, short stories, essays, poetic prose, philosophical tales, dissertations, a drama and the text for his semantic opera Saint Francis and the Wolf of Gubbio, or the chops of Saint Francis. In his works, he repeatedly returned to the same threads, most of which were marked by ethical dilemmas. He presented reality from different points of view, assuming that “the world is more complicated than our truths about it”. In his books, philosophical discourse is accompanied by absurd events, a clear reference to the complexity of human existence.

Books published by Gaberbocchus were illustrated by Franciszka, who was the artistic director of the publishing house. Apart from working for the publishing house, the artist constantly painted and drew, and presented her paintings/drawings in galleries in Great Britain, Poland, Italy, Sweden, the USA, and Denmark. She also published them in various periodicals. Her artistic output includes about 200 paintings and hundreds of drawings. In her works, especially paintings, she combined abstraction with figurativeness, but she also considered figurative forms to be a kind of abstraction (called ‘bi-abstract’ by her). And just like with Stefan’s work, one recurring theme can also be found in Franciszka’s output, namely the cracks between the harmony of the laws of nature and the complexity of human exsitence.

Franciszka also lectured on graphic design and stage design at British art schools. She collaborated with theatres. In 1964, she designed costumes and sets for the play King Ubu directed by Michael Meschke at Marionetteatern in Stockholm, for which she received the Gold Medal at the 1st International Triennial of Theatre Scenography in Yugoslavia. The play itself has been performed for over 20 years in various places around the world.

The Themersons’ work is one of the most original and versatile output in the history of 20th-century Polish art. Fully independent and uncompromising, it is also unique because it is closely related to the lives of both artists. The Themersons’ creativity is still waiting for new discoverers…