Ben Uri Gallery is proud to host our new exhibition Stories from the Life which will open to the general public on 21 Friday 2025. The exhibition includes paintings and drawings from her student days at the Academy of Fine Art in Warsaw juxtaposed with later works from London. Most have never been exhibited here before and when the exhibition ends, many will be donated to the National Museum in Warsaw.

Of the early works, made in Poland there are 3 paintings, and 19 drawings made between 1929 and 1933, which will be shown in the main gallery. When the exhibition ends, they will be donated to the National Museum in Warsaw.

The lower galleries will include works from the 1940s when Franciszka begins to experiment with abstract forms and bright colours. Even though Franciszka Themerson illustrated and designed books, was director of Gaberbocchus Press, made films with her husband Stefan Themerson, designed for the theatre, she was primarily a painter. Her paintings developed from the very tightly
crafted, densely coloured scenes of events within interiors of the earliest works, to later images whose meaning could be read in several different ways.

Central to the display are the early drawings from Poland and the only three surviving oil paintings from this period (1929–31) – two never previously exhibited. “What is striking about the paintings,’ notes Jasia Reichardt in her catalogue introduction “is not only the density of colour, but also that they are about interiors and the activities within them: dancing, dressmaking, eating”.

Ben Uri Gallery and Museum is dedicated to exploring the work and lives of emigre artists in London. Emerging from and representing the Jewish community, the collection principally reflects the work, lives and contribution of British and European artists of Jewish descent. Said to be the largest such museum in Europe. The collection now houses some 1,300 works of art.

WHERE: Ben Uri Gallery, 108A Boundary Road, London NW8 0RH

WHEN: This exhibition runs from Thursday 20th February to Friday 23rd May between 10:00am to 5:30pm

TICKETS: free entry

MORE INFO: here