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Franciszka Themerson, Insect Picture, 1972

”(…)The process of unification began. Counter-balanced by their environment, they became abstractions of emotions, meanings and situations. Every picture now carried within its space the geometry of conflict built of two kinds of abstractions – hence the name: bi-abstract pictures. One – an abstraction of this strange universe in which we find ourselves trapped, expressed by space arrangements, intersecting surfaces, geometrical shapes, and two – an abstraction of what we see and know about the human body, human emotions, human behaviour. I had finally found the visual language I had been looking for to explore and express reality as I experience it. A bi-abstract language. (…)

A critic once called my bi-abstract pictures ‘white modern cave paintings’. I liked the flattering comparison. I liked it still more when I went, a few months later, to see the caves at Lascaux, and saw the huge, heavy, magnificent, more-than-alive cows and bulls, a strange horse with swift, delicate legs and a tender muzzle, all drawn or incised in the uneven stone surface of the natural geometry of the looming walls and ceiling of the cave.  I said: more-than-alive. It was like having known that horse when it was  born and stumbling on its awkward legs, and like seeing it die in the future. It was like the essence of life itself, caught by the man who made the pictures 20,000 years ago. Or perhaps it was not a man? I mean – it might have been a woman, might it not?” — excerpt from ‘Bi-Abstract  Pictures’ in Art News and Review, vol.x, no.16, August 1958

🖼️ Franciszka Themerson, Insect Picture, 1972, Oil on canvas, 86 x 102 cm

Franciszka Themerson: Looking at the world with lines - on view until 5 April at Import Export, Warsaw. The solo exhibition of the artist’s work was prepared in collaboration with Themerson Estate.

IMPORT EXPORT
Aleja Szucha 16/7
00-582 Warsaw

Tuesday to Friday | 3 - 6 pm
Saturday | 12 - 6 pm

Enquiries: [email protected]

Franciszka Themerson: Looking at the world with lines ✍️ Opening on Friday, 21 February, from 4 to 7 pm 👀

Franciszka Themerson (1907-88)
Looking at the world with lines: solo exhibition in collaboration with Themerson Estate, London

On view: 21 February - 5 April 2025

IMPORT EXPORT
Aleja Szucha 16/7
00-582 Warsaw

Gallery opening hours:
Tuesday to Friday | 3 - 6 pm
Saturday | 12 - 6 pm

Enquiries: [email protected]