Born in Warsaw, Franciszka Themerson emerged as one of the most prominent film-makers of the Polish avant-garde, along with her husband, experimental writer and photographer Stefan Themerson. Together they paved the way for a new era of film-making, financed in part by a series of children's books produced by the couple (featuring Franciszka's drawings and Stefan's writing). Moving to Paris in 1938 and then to London in 1942 following the outbreak of war, Themerson forged a career as an independent artist, steadily refining a painting style characterised by a process that involved drawing with and into the paint using knives, fingers – anything but the end of a brush.
Her work, along with many collaborative pieces produced with her husband, are featured in numerous public collections across Europe, including Tate Britain, The British Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum, Arts Council England, Art Museum Belfast, Muzeum Narodowe, Warsaw and Marionetteatern, Stockholm. Her work has been the subject of many important solo exhibitions, including 'Franciszka & Stefan Themerson Books', Camera, Ubu, Camden Arts Centre, London (2016); 'Art Now: Lightbox Stefan and Franciszka Themerson', Tate Britain, London (2009); 'The Drawings of Franciszka Themerson', KUNSTEN Museum of Modern Art Aalborg, Denmark (1991) and 'Franciszka Themerson - It all depends on the point of view', Whitechapel Gallery, London (1975).