Benno Premsela (Amsterdam, 4 May 1920 – Amsterdam, 27 March 1997) was a Dutch
designer
A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exper ...
,
visual artist
The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics (art), ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual a ...
and
art collector. As designer he was active as textile artist, industrial designer and interior designer.
[Benno Premsela;male / Dutch; industrial designer, textile artist, designer, interior decorator, window dresser, art collector, monumental artist](_blank)
at rkd.nl. Last updated 2017-03-30.
Biography
Premsela was born and raised in Amsterdam. He was the son of Benedictus Premsela, general practitioner and sexologist, en Rosalie de Boers.
[E. Broeksma-van Capelle]
Premsela, Benno (1920-1997)
, in ''Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland''. Last updated 12-11-2013. After his secondary education he attended the Nieuwe Kunstschool (New Art School) from 1937 to 1940.
Premsela was Jewish and one of the only members of his family to survive
the Holocaust in the Netherlands
The Holocaust saw the mass murder of Dutch Jews by Nazi Germany in German-occupied Netherlands, occupied Netherlands during the Second World War. The Nazi occupation in 1940 immediately began disrupting the norms of Dutch society, separating Dut ...
.
From 1956 to 1973 he was head of display window decoration at
De Bijenkorf
(; literally, "the beehive") is a chain of high-end department stores in the Netherlands, with its flagship store on Dam Square in Amsterdam. The chain is owned by Selfridges Group, owner also of Britain's Selfridges and Ireland's Bro ...
. He joined the Amsterdam Council for the Arts, which he chaired from 1961 to 1970. In 1972 he became chairman of the board of directors of the
Gerrit Rietveld Academie
The Gerrit Rietveld Academie, also known as Rietveld School of Art & Design and Rietveld Academy, is an art academy in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It was founded in 1924 and offers programs in fine arts and design.
History
The Instituut voor Kuns ...
.
Premsela was also chairman of the
COC Nederland and made an important contribution to the acceptance of homosexuality in the Netherlands.
The
Benno Premsela Prize initiated in 2000 was named after Premsela. in 2002 a new national institute for design was named after him as well, the
Premsela Dutch Platform for Design and Fashion.
Further reading
* Erik Beenker. ''Benno Premsela,'' 1985.
* Keso Dekker. ''Benno Premsela onder anderen: Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.'' 1981.
* Bert Boelaars. ''Benno Premsela, 1920-1997: voorvechter van homo-emancipatie.'' 2008.
References
External links
PREMSELA, Benno (1920-1997)at knaw.nl.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Premsela, Benno
1920 births
1997 deaths
Artists from Amsterdam
Dutch Holocaust survivors
Dutch designers
Dutch LGBTQ rights activists
Dutch LGBTQ artists
LGBTQ designers
LGBTQ Jews
20th-century Dutch male artists
20th-century Dutch LGBTQ people
20th-century Dutch Jews