Rolf Wilhelm Albert Sachs (born August 10, 1955 in

Lausanne, Switzerland , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin ( ...

) is a

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri *Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internati ...

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, t ...

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 exp ...

art collector A private collection is a privately owned collection of works (usually artworks) or valuable items. In a museum or art gallery context, the term signifies that a certain work is not owned by that institution, but is on loan from an individua ...

and

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...

Biography

Early life

Sachs was born August 10, 1955 in Lausanne, Switzerland. His parents were industrial heir

Gunter Sachs Fritz Gunter Sachs (14 November 1932 – 7 May 2011, also Gunter Sachs von Opel) was a German photographer, author, Rosenberg student, industrialist, and latterly head of an institute that researched claims of astrology. As a young man he bec ...

and his first wife Anne-Marie Faure (1934-1958) who died early from anesthesia error during an operation. He has Swiss and German dual citizenship. His grandfather was German industrialist Willy Sachs who was the majority owner of

Fichtel & Sachs ZF Sachs AG, also known as Fichtel & Sachs, was founded in Schweinfurt in 1895 and was a well-known German family business. At its last point as an independent company, the company name was Fichtel & Sachs AG. In 1997, the automotive supplier wa ...

. His great-grandfather was

Wilhelm von Opel Wilhelm von Opel (15 May 1871 – 2 May 1948), known as Wilhelm Opel before being ennobled in 1917, was one of the founders of the German automobile manufacturer Opel. He introduced the assembly line to the German automobile industry. His father ...

, the son of

Opel Opel Automobile GmbH (), usually shortened to Opel, is a German automobile manufacturer which has been a subsidiary of Stellantis since 16 January 2021. It was owned by the American automaker General Motors from 1929 until 2017 and the PSA ...

company founder

Adam Opel Adam Opel (9 May 1837 – 8 September 1895) was the founder of the German automobile company Adam Opel AG. Biography Adam Opel was born on 9 May 1837 to Wilhelm, a locksmith, and his wife in Rüsselsheim. Opel studied with his father unti ...

. He was educated at Institute Le Rosey and the Lyceum Alpinum Zuoz. From 1975 he started to study economics in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. He holds a

Bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in Business Administration from

Menlo College Menlo College is a private college specializing in business and is located in Atherton, California. Campus Menlo College is situated on 45-acre (0.18 km2) campus in Atherton, California, 25 miles southeast of San Francisco and 20 miles nort ...

in Menlo Park,

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

Career

He started his formal career in investment banking before fully committing to the art world. Since 1984 he is also active as furniture designer and since 2006 also as a set designer (theater and movies). He moved to

in 1994 and founded his design studio ''rolf sachs fun'ction'' there. According to his own statements, he was heavily influenced by

Suprematism Suprematism (russian: Супремати́зм) is an early twentieth-century art movement focused on the fundamentals of geometry (circles, squares, rectangles), painted in a limited range of colors. The term ''suprematism'' refers to an abstra ...

Dadaism Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (Zurich), Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 192 ...

Surrealism Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...

, the

Nouveau Réalisme Nouveau réalisme (French: new realism) refers to an artistic movement founded in 1960 by the art critic Pierre Restany and the painter Yves Klein during the first collective exposition in the Apollinaire gallery in Milan. Pierre Restany wrote ...

group of artists and the artist

Joseph Beuys Joseph Heinrich Beuys ( , ; 12 May 1921 – 23 January 1986) was a German artist, teacher, performance artist, and art theorist whose work reflected concepts of humanism, sociology, and anthroposophy. He was a founder of a provocative art mov ...

. His penchant for chairs follows on from an extensive collection of chairs begun in the late 1980s. A large special exhibition with design objects that deal with German virtues took place in 2014 in the Museum for Applied Arts in Cologne. Additionally after his studies he briefly worked for his family's company as specialist and investor for 'alternative investments'. He is still active in the world of finance and investments through his single family office ''galaxar ag'' which has offices in

Chur , neighboring_municipalities= Arosa, Churwalden, Tschiertschen-Praden, Domat/Ems, Felsberg, Malix, Trimmis, Untervaz, Pfäfers , twintowns = Bad Homburg (Germany), Cabourg (France), Mayrhofen (Austria), Mondorf-les-Bains (Lux ...

and

Zug Zug (Standard German: , Alemannic German: ; french: Zoug it, Zugo rm, Zug New Latin: ''Tugium'')named in the 16th century is the largest town and capital of the Swiss canton of Zug in Switzerland. Its name originates from the fishing vocabulary ...

. Also he holds several advisory and board member positions on a national and international level.

Family

Since 1985 he was married to

Iranian Iranian may refer to: * Iran, a sovereign state * Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran * Iranian lan ...

-born Maryam Banihashem. They had three children; Philipp, Frederick and Roya Sachs. In 2014 they made their separation public. Since then he has been in a relationship with Mafalda Princess of Hesse. Sachs currently resides in

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Art and design

Rolf Sachs's work moves between art and design, objects, spaces and visual medium. It encourages his audience to question preconceptions and view objects from a different perspective, through an inquisitive and conceptual approach. Sachs’ work was initially inspired by the principles of minimalism. Restrained decoration, deconstructed right angles and sharp corners were the defining characteristics of his work, predominantly made from felt and solid wood. His work has changed over the years, becoming more experimental and conceptual and therefore not as definable. He searches for the unconventional and the unexpected, a philosophy reflected in his artistic style. Rolf Sachs has exhibited at numerous art and design galleries including th
MAKK Museum
in Cologne
Galerie von Bartha
in St Moritz, th
Victoria & Albert Museum
in London, ammann// gallery a
Design Miami BaselPhillips de Pury & Company New York
Monica Sprüth Cologne an
Faggionato Fine Arts in London
His set designs the Faust opera, which debuted at

Wiesbaden Staatstheater Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban are ...

and the Faust ballet at the

Les Ballets de Monte Carlo Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo (The Monte Carlo Ballet) is a classical ballet company established in 1985 by the Princess of Hanover in accordance with the wishes of her mother, Princess Grace of Monaco. It is the official national company of the ...

, which toured globally. In March 2009, Sachs completed the set design for Vincenzo Bellini’s “

Norma Norma may refer to: * Norma (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) Astronomy * Norma (constellation) *555 Norma, a minor asteroid * Cygnus Arm or Norma Arm, a spiral arm in the Milky Way galaxy Geography *Norma, Laz ...

” at the

Opera de Monte Carlo Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a ...

Rolf collaborated with his stepmother Maryam Sachs on developing the concept for the photographic project entitle
''The Wild Emperor''
where over a period of a year, a stationary camera captured the Wild Kaiser mountain range outside his house in

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total l ...

, in 10.5 minute intervals. At the end of September 2016, Sachs published a yearlong photographic exploration on the UNESCO World Heritage Rhaetian Albula /

Bernina Railway The Bernina Railway (german: Berninalinie; it, Linea del Bernina; rm, Lingia dal Bernina) is a single-track railway line forming part of the Rhaetian Railway (RhB). It links the spa resort of St. Moritz, in the canton of Graubünden, Switzer ...

line, entitle
''Camera in Motion: From Chur to Tirano''
In this recent project Sachs's photographs were taken from a moving train. These images uncover Sachs’s experimental approach to photography and challenge the viewer to step towards an unknown reality. The book features 87 photographs and includes texts by Bill Kouwenhoven and Helen Chislett, and is published b

In October 2016, Sachs designed the Leica M-P (Typ 240) special edition 'grip' by Rolf Sachs, in collaboration wit
Leica Camera AG
The new, limited edition, model unites the iconic rangefinder technology with artistic product design with a combination of unusual materials and the artist’s signature bright red colour palette.

External links

*
Rolf Sachs Website
*
"Rolf Sachs covers Leica camera in ping-pong rubber" Dezeen Website, 13 October 2016

"Photo finish: Rolf Sachs designs a ping pong rubber-cased camera for Leica" Wallpaper* website, 14 October 2016

*
In-pulse!' by Rolf Sachs Studio, Milan'' Wallpaper* website, 19 April 2011
*
''Rolf Sachs Studio Invitations'' Wallpaper* website, 19 April 2011
*
''Salone: Rolf Sachs'' Whitewall website, 18 April 2011
*
''Rolf Sachs discusses 'In-Pulse! Vogue.it, 14 April 2011
*

* ttp://www.dezeen.com/2010/06/25/alone-in-a-crowd-by-rolf-sachs/ ''Alone in a crowd by Rolf Sachs'' Dezeen website, 25 June 2010*
''Alone in a crowd table by Rolf Sachs'' Mocoloco website, 24 June 2010
*
''“flawless/imperfection” by Rolf Sachs'' Artslope website, 13 April 2010
*

* ttp://www.weheart.co.uk/2010/09/28/ldf10-rolf-sachs-open-studio/ Rolfs Sachs Open Studio at LDF 2010*
Article by Caroline Roux, The Observer, Sunday 22 October 2006
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sachs, Rolf 1955 births Living people People from Lausanne Swiss-German people German artists