Rolf Sachs
Rolf Sachs, born in Switzerland in 1955 to a German father and a French mother, works at the intersection of art and design. After studying in the United States and the United Kingdom, he began his artistic career in the late 1980s. His interdisciplinary practice encompasses furniture, lighting, objects and installations, as well as stage design, photography and architectural projects. His work frequently explores human behaviour, cultural conventions and familiar everyday objects, which Sachs transforms through shifts in material, scale or context, inviting them to be experienced in new ways. Since 2018, he has lived and worked in Rome.
Rolf Sachs has a longstanding collaboration with Porzellan Manufaktur Nymphenburg. In 2014, he created Das Maß, a monumental porcelain version of the traditional one-litre beer stein enlarged to seven times its usual size. The work plays with the German concepts of maßvoll (moderate) and maßlos (excessive), as well as ideas of German culture and conviviality. In 2023, Sachs created Berührung, a series of individually formed candleholders in biscuit porcelain, some with coloured glazed sections. Cracks, fingerprints and deliberately irregular forms remain visible, making the artist’s direct interaction with the porcelain body an integral part of the work. In this way, Sachs deliberately contrasts the perfection associated with traditional porcelain making with imperfection and individuality, making each piece unique.
