Untitled
- Artist: Franciszka Themerson
- Artist: Stefan Themerson
- Date: 1928, printed later
- Medium: Photograph, gelatin silver print on paper
- Dimensions: support: 461 x 283 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
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About this artwork
This is the "Untitled" by Franciszka and Stefan Themerson, created in 1928. It’s a black‑and‑white gelatin silver print that shows the playful experiment of the Themersons with camera‑less photography. They laid objects – sometimes liquid, sometimes plant branches – on a glass shelf and moved lights above them. While the objects cast shifting shadows, Stefan lay beneath the glass and photographed the scene from below. By photographing a photogram, they could produce multiple prints instead of a one‑off image. The result is an abstract composition that feels like a frozen moment of light and shape. It’s an early example of the “photographed photogram” technique that pushed the limits of still photography during the interwar years, a time of great experimentation by artists like Man Ray and László Moholy‑Nagy. The Themersons were key figures in the European avant‑garde, and this print captures their inventive spirit.
See it in person
Untitled is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
