Franciszka Themerson

(1907 Warsaw-1988 London)

Jointly founded the Gaberbocchus Press with her brother Stephan, and together they became renowned for their high quality illustrations of children's books and daring publishing ventures, most notably an edition of Lewis Carol's ‘Alice in Wonderland'.

Trained at The Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, and a formative member of the Polish avant-garde art movement in the 1940-50's, Themerson moved more and more towards a separate career as a painter and film-maker, for which she is best known today.

Her work has been noted for the skill by which it incorporates the figurative line into an abstract scene, and the three examples of her work listed for sale feature from her most highly emotional post-war opus, concerned with the fragile condition of humanity and the continuation of life itself.

In London, her works have been exhibited in Gallery One (1957 and 59), the Whitechapel Art Gallery (1975), the Imperial War Museum (1994) and the Art First Gallery (1999 and 2001), as well as many other British, American and Polish venues. Examples of her paintings and films can be seen in London in the public collections of the Arts Council of Great Britain, the British Museum, the British Film Institute, Royal Holloway College (University of London), the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Tate Britain. Her work is also represented in the public collections of Northern Ireland and Warsaw.