Gerhild Diesner (1915-1995)

Gerhild Diesner was born 1915 in Innsbruck. At a private school in Geneva she received the first drawing lessons in 1930. Between 1932 and 1935 Diesner joined a class for nude drawing by professor Comploj and a class for textiles.

From 1930 on she stayed in England during the summer months and in 1935 she decided to live there for two years. She visited the Chelsea Art School and at the School of Art in Brighton the class of Charles Knight. In 1937 she moved to Munich and studied at the Academy of Applied Arts, her teachers were Ernst Dombrowsky, Ehmke and Emil Preetorius. Between 1941 and 1943 Diesner colored pictures of traditional costumes in Tyrol and visited the class of Max von Esterle for nude drawing. Six years later she moved to Paris and came to the Academy André Lhote and the École de la Grande Chaumière. After one year Diesner returned to Innsbruck.

At the end of the Second World Was many of her works from Paris were destroyed in Munich. After 1945 she met Paul Flora, Jörg Sackenheim and the sculptor Bodo Kampmann, who she married in 1949. Her first solo exhibition was in Alpbach, where she got to know Werner Scholz, Johannes Behler and Jakob Lederer.

In occasion of the exhibition “Tiroler Kunst” she received the advancement award of the Tyrolean government. Between 1955 and 1975 Diesner did a lot of study trips to England, Portugal and Italy. In 1995 she received the art prize of Tyrol.

Gerhild Diesner died in 1995 in Innsbruck.