Riekje Swart

She was awarded the Benno Premsela Prize in 2002 for her contribution to the development of visual arts in the Netherlands.

[2] After the German bombing of Rotterdam the family moved to Laren, North Holland, where she finished high school.

The 1949 COBRA exhibition triggered her interest in contemporary art and the protest movement of the artists, and by the end of the 1950s she turned her career around.

[3] In the 1970s she promoted the young Figuration Libre artists, which, however, due to their big success, became too commercial for her soon after.

[2] In an obituary in the de Volkskrant three days after her death in 2008, Riekje Swart was remembered as "the queen mother of the Dutch gallery world, the mentor of collectors, the tireless fan of art that leads the way.