Poland, PRL (1952-1989), Plock. Medal 1988, Stefan Themerson 1910 - 1988

Stefan Themerson
Writer, philosopher, composer, poet (creator of semantic poetry),author of avant-garde films, publisher. He studied physics and architecture in Warsaw. In 1930-1937 he made avant-garde films with his wife, Franciszka Themerson, preceded by experiments in photography and film. Themersons founded the Film Cooperative and published the magazine "f.a." (art film). Many children`s books written by Stefan with illustrations by Franciszka were published at the time.
He wrote in Polish, French and English.
source: lubimyczytac.pl

"I am a verb."
The prematurely deceased poet and literary critic Michal Sprusinski tried to characterize Themerson`s work, which eludes definition, in this way:
- Themerson is a philosopher, a logician, who is distinguished by an utterly extraordinary precision of thought, but who at the same time did not lose a few basic things. And as a logician, who was held in high esteem by Bertrand Russell, both as a philosopher and as a novelist, he remembered to make the word very precise, to avoid any noise, to make it all a perfect but nevertheless full of imaginative frenzy," Sprusinski said in the archival recording used in the Polish Radio broadcast.
When asked to make a statement about himself, the artist described himself as follows:
- I am more of a verb than a noun. For billions of years I wasn`t there, then I started happening, now I`m happening and soon I`ll stop happening. These are the characteristics of a verb, not a noun," Stefan Themerson said in a Polish Radio broadcast.
source: polskieradio.pl