Wenge wooden slat bench / table designed by Martin Visser for ‘t Spectrum in 1961.

This bench was originally designed for Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.

Martin Visser (1922-2009) is one of the most famous Dutch furniture designers. Through his work for the furniture department of De Bijenkorf, Visser was asked in 1954 to become head designer at Spectrum. This turns out to be a big hit; his sleek designs and functional approach to design have inspired the collection for a long time.Visser had a strong preference for traditionally crafted designs. He demanded the utmost from technique and sought out boundaries to come up with new constructions. Honest use of materials, clear construction and lack of decoration show Visser’s great admiration for Henk Berlage and pre-war functionalism. He wanted to make accessible furniture with as little material and as simple shapes as possible. During his 20 years as chief designer, Visser linked big names to Spectrum, including Gerrit Rietveld, Friso Kramer, Hein Stolle, Constant Nieuwenhuys, Kho Liang Ie and Benno Premsela, who designed furniture for the collection. This made Spectrum one of the few Dutch furniture companies to have involved artists in their collection since the 1950s.

During his life Martin Visser built up an important private collection of contemporary art, in addition to his work as a designer. He collected early work by Cobra, and was considered the discoverer of Anselm Kiefer and Keith Haring. Of his art collection, 400 works are housed in the Kröller-Müller Museum. In December 1998 Martin Visser was rewarded the oeuvre prize for design.