Franciszka THEMERSON
Franciszka Themerson UBU is an extraordinary solo exhibition of Polish artist Franciszka THEMERSON, marking her first with the gallery.
On 10th December 1896 the Theatre de l’Oeuvre in Paris staged the debut performance of a play that stunned and outraged the audience but kicked down the door to Modernism, the movement that transformed 20th-Century culture. Ubu Roi by playwright Alfred Jarry was banned immediately after that first performance.
Themerson has subsequently spent most of her artistic mid-life immersed in an obsession with Ubu Roi. In 1948, impassioned by the seminal cultural importance of Jarry’s play, she and her husband and lifelong collaborator Stefan, published the first ever English translation of Ubu Roi on Gaberbocchus Press.
This remarkable exhibition takes us back to the dawn of Modernism and the play that paved the way for Dadaism, Surrealism and the ‘Theatre of the Absurd’.
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Franciszka THEMERSON, Bordure, 1951
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Franciszka THEMERSON, A Soldier, 1964
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Franciszka THEMERSON, An Officer, Ubu, 1964
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Franciszka THEMERSON, Army of Free men, Ubu Enchaine, 1970
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Franciszka THEMERSON, Bordure, 1964
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Franciszka THEMERSON, Bougrelas, Ubu Roi , 1964
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Franciszka THEMERSON, Comic strip 1 (of 90), 1970
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Franciszka THEMERSON, Comic strip 23 (of 90), 1970
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Franciszka THEMERSON, Comic strip 24 (of 90), 1970
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Franciszka THEMERSON, Comic strip 25 (of 90), 1970
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Franciszka THEMERSON, Comic strip 33 (of 90), 1970
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Franciszka THEMERSON, Comic strip 34 (of 90), 1970
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Franciszka THEMERSON, Comic strip 35 (of 90), 1970
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Franciszka THEMERSON, Comic strip 4 (of 90), 1970
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Franciszka THEMERSON, Comic strip 5 (of 90), 1970
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Franciszka THEMERSON, Comic strip 57 (of 90), 1970
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Franciszka THEMERSON, Comic strip 58 (of 90), 1970
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Franciszka THEMERSON, Comic strip 88 (of 90), 1970
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Franciszka THEMERSON, Conscience Kicks Père Ubu, Ubu Cocu, 1971
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Franciszka THEMERSON, Cotice, 1964
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Franciszka THEMERSON, Fragment of the Army, Ubu, 1964
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Franciszka THEMERSON, Fragments of the Armies, 1964
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Franciszka THEMERSON, Head of Ubu, Copenhagen, 1972
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Franciszka THEMERSON, Head of Ubu, Copenhagen, 1972
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Franciszka THEMERSON, Hot Line, 1970
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Franciszka THEMERSON, Insatiable Mère Ubu, 1969
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Franciszka THEMERSON, Les Gens Libres, Ubu Enchaine, 1970
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Franciszka THEMERSON, Lord Catoblepas, 1970
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Franciszka THEMERSON, Mère Ubu, 1964
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Franciszka THEMERSON, Mère Ubu Drawings, Ubu Comic, 1969
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Franciszka THEMERSON, Père at Mère Ubu, Comic Strip Studies, 1969
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Franciszka THEMERSON, Père Ubu etc, Comic Strip Studies, 1969
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Franciszka THEMERSON, Père Ubu, Musing, 1969
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Franciszka THEMERSON, Petulant Ubu, 1964
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Franciszka THEMERSON, Prison Warden, Ubu Enchaine, 1971
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Franciszka THEMERSON, Some Nobles, Ubu, 1964
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Franciszka THEMERSON, UBU at Sea, Closing Scene, Stockholm, 1964
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Franciszka THEMERSON, Ubu Poster, Stockholm, 1964
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Franciszka THEMERSON, Ubu Roi fighting the Russian Army, 1964
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Franciszka THEMERSON, Un Cheval Libre, 1971
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Installation view, Franciszka Themerson UBU
Photo by FXP Photography. -
Installation view, Franciszka Themerson UBU
Photo by FXP Photography. -
Installation view, Franciszka Themerson UBU
Photo by FXP Photography. -
Installation view, Franciszka Themerson UBU
Photo by FXP Photography. -
Installation view, Franciszka Themerson UBU
Photo by FXP Photography. -
Installation view, Franciszka Themerson UBU
Photo by FXP Photography. -
Installation view, Franciszka Themerson UBU
Photo by FXP Photography. -
Installation view, Franciszka Themerson UBU
Photo by FXP Photography. -
Installation view, Franciszka Themerson UBU
Photo by FXP Photography. -
Installation view, Franciszka Themerson UBU
Photo by FXP Photography. -
Installation view, Franciszka Themerson UBU
Photo by FXP Photography.
Richard Saltoun Gallery is pleased to present Franciszka Themerson UBU, an extraordinary solo exhibition of Polish artist Franciszka THEMERSON (1907-1988), and her first with the gallery.
On 10th December 1896 the Theatre de l’Oeuvre in Paris staged the debut performance of a play that stunned and outraged the audience but kicked down the door to Modernism, the movement that transformed 20th Century culture.
Ubu Roi by playwright Alfred Jarry was banned immediately after that first performance. The language was foul, the costumes ridiculous, the gestures violent, and its story, a farcical parody of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Actors, dressed like clumsy versions of old wooden folklore marionettes, belched ‘Merdre!’ (‘Shit! with an additional ‘r’) and growled in strange unplaceable accents, behind masks. Props were cut from cardboard, and even Ubu’s (the King) sceptre was a toilet brush. Ubu was the first play in history to draw attention to the artificiality of theatre conventions and reject 19th century methods for creating the illusion of the real. The play’s punk innovations marked the turn of the Avant-garde.
Franciszka Themerson spent most of her artistic mid-life immersed in an obsession with Ubu. In 1948, impassioned by the seminal cultural importance of Jarry’s play, she and her husband and lifelong collaborator Stefan, published the first ever English translation of Ubu Roi on Gaberbocchus Press.
Jarry’s slapstick, clown-like imagery marked an affinity with Themerson, whose paintings and drawings were similarly crude and comic, often mocking social stereotypes and classes. The published translation was a phenomenal success. In 1951 London’s ICA held a groundbreaking performance where actors sat at a long table and recited the script, whilst wearing elaborately grotesque theatrical papier-mâché masks made by Themerson. A decade later she designed a puppet production of the play at Marionetteatern, Stockholm, where the characters morphed into disturbing life sized puppets carrying wooden flat cut-out 'body-masks', reminiscent of Dadaist costume. The play toured globally for 20 years and was made into a film. These 13 bizarre and fabulous original papier-mâché masks together with film, historical images and documentation will be on full display in the exhibition together with comic strip drawings, works on paper, collages, photographs and theatre posters.
This remarkable exhibition of Franciszka Themerson UBU takes us back to the dawn of Modernism and the play that paved the way for Dadaism, Surrealism and the ‘Theatre of the Absurd’.