On June 3, 2024, a single-room display of Polish artist Franciszka Themerson opened to the public at Tate Britain, room 20. On this occasion, one of our art writers Patrycja Rozwora travelled to London to attend the press preview and conduct a podcast interview with Dr Hilary Floe – Senior Curator, Modern and Contemporary British Art, Tate Britain, Saskia Flower – Assistant Curator, Modern and Contemporary British Art, Tate Britain, and Weronika Gertig-Burgess – representative of the Themerson Estate in London.
Franciszka Themerson (1907-1988) was a Polish, later British, painter, illustrator, filmmaker, and set designer. Together with her husband Stefan Themerson, she was one of the most important experimental filmmakers in interwar Poland. Her film work, as well as her paintings and drawings, challenged social conformity and revealed her belief in individual freedom. During and after the Second World War, Francziszka Themerson created humorous works that dealt profoundly with the complex themes of trauma and loss.
The exhibition was inspired by Franciszka Themerson’s unique painting Comme la vie est lente et comme l’espérance est violente (1959), which was first shown to the public in the Barbican’s exhibition Postwar Modern: New Art in Britain 1945-1965, and shortly afterwards acquired by Tate.
Visitors to the exhibition will be able to explore different phases of Franciszka Themerson’s artistic practice. Two of her short films, Europa (1931) and The Adventure of a Good Citizen (1937), made in collaboration with Stefan Themerson, set the political framework for the events that led to the Second World War and thus influenced Franciszka’s life and artistic practice. A large part of the exhibition is devoted to Franciszka’s separation from her husband Stefan in the 1940s, which she expressed through a series of drawings and never sent letters. Last but not least, the Tate exhibition features three extraordinary paintings Franciszka made in the 1950s that reflect the atrocities of World War II through a powerful tool of humour.
The one-room display at Tate Britain is free and open to all until March 30, 2025. This episode of Kitchen Conversations was created for Contemporary Lynx with the support of the Polish Cultural Institute in London.
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