An avant garde love story: the incredible output of Themersons

One of the art world’s most wonderful love stories, but perhaps one of its least well known, is that of Polish couple the Themersons. Making work that was truly odd in a wonderful, boundary pushing, free way; the couple’s output included everything from paintings to drawings, books, film and animation, each executed with a strange air of naive curiosity that belies its deeper conceptual concerns.

Now, finally, the pair are getting the 21st Century UK recognition they deserve in the form of a comprehensive exhibition of their work at Camden Arts Centre.

Stories today say that Franciszka and Stefan can’t remember having met, but they did so in 1929 in Warsaw and remained partners and collaborators until their deaths in 1988 in London. They moved to Paris just before the outbreak of WW2, and when war broke out volunteered for the Polish army together. Despite this, they were separated: Franciszka moved to London and Stefan served briefly as a soldier in France, before becoming stranded in a Polish red cross hospital there. They were separated for two years, and their only communication was a series of charming and utterly poignant unsent drawings and letters.

Though a fascinating biography, their work tells a very different story to that of love and war. Instead, it’s a narrative of pushing definitions of what art is and can do. The exhibition presents the couple’s vast output in three sections: films, books and their publishing house Gaberbocchus Press; and Franciszka’s puppets, stage designs and comic based on the play Ubu Roi by Alfred Jarry.

While Themerson’s films are held in institutions including the BFI, Tate Britain and the V&A; Camden Arts Centre presents their three surviving films (they made seven in total) together – The Adventure of a Good Citizen (1937), Calling Mr Smith (1943) and The Eye and the Ear (1944/45) – with work-in-progress shots and 1930s photograms.

Throughout their films and prolific publishing output, the work of Themersons looks as experimental and thought-provoking today as it ever did. A wonderful love story told through an incredible body of work.