Nick Wadley, Serge Fauchereau and Professor Sarah Wilson (Courtauld Institute of Art), will be in conversation discussing the work of Franciszka Themerson, on the occasion of her exhibition, Lines and Thoughts, at l’étrangère.
Serge Fauchereau is an important literary figure in Paris; he first translated American, English and Irish poets into French in the 1960s. He was the key curator for the literary sections of the pioneer Centre Georges Pompidou exhibitions, notably Paris-Berlin, Paris-Moscou, in the late 1970s, and Presences Polonaises, 1983, for which he interviewed the Themersons extensively. Continuing his collaboration with Pontus Hulten, he worked on Futurismo e Futurismi (Venice, 1986) and the crucial Europa-Europa, (Bonn, 1994) which brought Eastern and western modernisms together across the century. L’Europe des Esprits, (Strasbourg 2011) was followed at the same venue by his major Tristan Tzara retrospective in 2016. Besides his own creative writing, Fauchereau has written innumerable monographs and catalogue essays: the global range of his Avant-gardes du XX siècle, arts et littérature, 1905-1930, 2010, is of particular interest in terms of current debates.
Nick Wadley writes and draws. He was Head of Art History at Chelsea School of Art, London until 1985, has published on Gauguin and on 19th century French drawing, and has curated exhibitions, including Kurt Schwitters in Exile (London, 1981), Franciszka Themerson Drawings (Aalborg, Denmark, 1991), Gaberbocchus Press (Paris, 1996), The Secret Life of Clothes (Fukuoka, Japan, 1998), UBU in UK (London, 2000), Franciszka Themerson, A European Artist (London 2013). Since the 1990s his own drawings have been published in UK and USA, and exhibited in London, Buenos Aires, Tokyo and Warsaw. In collaboration with Sylvia Libedinsky, he made weekly cartoons for the Daily Telegraph and Financial Times, London, 1997-2001. He writes occasionally for the TLS; is a Régent of the Collège de ‘Pataphysique. His latest book of drawings is Man + Doctor (Dalkey Archive, 2012). He was an intimate friend of the Themersons during the last decade of their lives, is preparing the oeuvre catalogue of Franciszka’s work, and has written and lectured extensively about each of them. He collaborates with Jasia Reichardt on looking after the Themerson Archive and estate.
Sarah Wilson is an art historian, curator and writer. Her global art interests are informed by specialisms in postwar and Cold War Europe and the USSR. In 2015, she was co-curator and curator for the academic forum of the 1st Asian Biennale / 5th Guangzhou Triennale, Guanzhou, China is expanding her interest currently to Japan.
She was educated at the University of Oxford (English Literature) and at the Courtauld where she took her MA and Ph.D degrees. In 1997 she was awarded the title Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres for services to French art and culture. In 2015 she was the recipient of International Association of Art Critics’ Award for Distinguished Contribution to Art Criticism. Among her publications are The Visual World of French Theory: figurations (Yale, 2010); Picasso/ Marx and socialist realism in France (Liverpool, 2013). She has published on Zofia Kulik, Alina Szapocznicow and supervised many dissertations on Polish art including on the Themersons.