Franciszka Themerson

Polish painter, illustrator, book publisher, experimental filmmaker and stage designer (28 June 1907, Warsaw, Kingdom of Prussia — 29 June 1988, London, UK). Franciszka Themerson had a prolific and multi-faceted career, engaged in visual arts, cinema and marionette theater, among other disciplines. She worked in a life-long partnership with her husband, Stefan Themerson (1910—1988); their duo is widely regarded as pioneers of avant-garde cinema in Poland and Europe's most active proponents of surrealism. Franciszka had solo exhibitions at prestigious museums and galleries, including Whitechapel Art Gallery, Muzeum Sztuki, Łodź, Gardner Arts Centre, University Of Sussex, Royal Festival Hall and Imperial War Museum. Franciszka Weinles was born to a Jewish family in Warsaw, then Prussia Kingdom; both her parents were involved in arts. She attended the Chopin University of Music and later the Warsaw School of Fine Arts, graduating with honors in 1931. While studying, Franciszka met Stefan Themerson, a Warsaw Polytechnic dropout and an aspiring photographer and writer, and they married soon after her graduation. Between 1931 and 35, Themersons lived in Warsaw, where Franciszka established an art practice and illustrated dozens of children's books by her husband and other authors. She co-wrote and co-produced five experimental short films directed by Stefan, including Apteka (1930) and Europa (1931–32) based on Anatol Stern's poem. They are often cited among the earliest examples of Polish avant-garde cinema (alongside works of J.M. Brzeski and a few other filmmakers). In 1935, Themersons established an artist-run cooperative, Spółdzielnia Autorów Filmowych, which united several local filmmakers. Most of their films were lost during WWII in Paris. (In 2019, an incomplete copy of Europa was found in Berlin archives, which is now at British Film Institute.) Franciszka traveled to Paris and London with Stefan in 1936–37, where they befriended László Moholy-Nagy and other notable avant-gardists. As World War II broke, they both enlisted: Franciszka Themerson remained in Paris, serving as a cartographer for the Polish Army, while Stefan fought with joint troops in Western France. In 1940, she fled to London after the Nazi regime occupied Paris. Themersons produced several more films after the War, including Calling Mr. Smith (1943), a documentary on Hitler's atrocities in Poland, and The Eye and the Ear (44/45), dedicated to the visualization of music. In 1944, Franciszka and Stefan moved to Maida Vale in West London, where they resided for the rest of their lives. In 1948, Franciszka co-founded an iconic publishing house, Gaberbocchus Press, with Stefan, serving as its art director for 30 years. Gaberbocchus produced over sixty critically-acclaimed titles and translations by Kurt Schwitters, Bertrand Russell and numerous other authors; one of the most notable books was a translation of Alfred Jarry's Ubu Roi. As a stage designer, Themerson particularly excelled in marionette theater, including ground-breaking productions of Jarry's Ubu and Brecht's Threepenny Opera, which toured internationally for decades. Some of Franciszka's theatrical designs were later exhibited at London's National Theatre in 1993.