Shtager&Shch is proud to present Gunter Sachs at the 2023 edition of Photo London.

During his lifetime, Sachs’ reputation as visionary artist, pioneering gallerist and influential collector were in part overshadowed by his celebrity status and jet-setting lifestyle. Amongst many achievements, Sachs presented Andy Warhol’s first large scale exhibition in Europe and commissioned Roy Lichtenstein to paint a series of panels for his residence, closely linking his legacy to pop art. His private collection was equally influenced by surrealism and included works by René Magritte and Salvador Dalí.

Documenting the emerging youth and counter culture movements of the late 20th Century and working closely with fashion models and socialites, Sachs created a lasting record of the glamour and excitement of his time while simultaneously questioning societal norms.

In his photography Sachs combined his well-documented joie de vivre with a passion for art history to create surrealist portraits, nudes and landscapes, often blending genres to create absurd scenes with saturated hues and unexpected juxtapositions. By applying colour filters and multiple exposures and elaborating on the concept of found objects, his work evokes a dreamlike and sometimes unsettling quality.

The photographs presented at Photo London include early nudes and landscapes as well as pieces from Heroines, the artist’s 1991 collaboration with Claudia Schiffer. These are placed in dialogue with a 2018 sculptural installation by Alexei Izmaylov whose work is composed of procured industrial elements and everyday objects as an investigation of the relationship between play and power, consumption and desire.
Martina Shtager worked directly with the late Gunter Sachs and curated a number of exhibitions of his work, including at the Lazarev Gallery in collaboration with the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg and the PhotoLoft Gallery at Winzavod Art Centre in Moscow. She posthumously represented Gunter Sachs at Art Stage Singapore in 2013.

The works at Photo London 2023 are part of the private collection of Joseph Kiblitsky, a publisher and member of the Gunter Sachs Foundation. This certified edition was printed in 2005 during the lifetime of Gunter Sachs and approved by the latter.

Marina Shtager established Shtager Gallery in London in 2017 with a vision of facilitating cross-border discourse in the visual arts. In 2022 Shtager was joined by Anna Shchilova and the gallery recently re-opened as Shtager&Shch at new premises in London’s Fitzrovia. Building on a reputation of introducing contemporary Eastern European artists to the British public the expanded gallery program encourages interdisciplinary and inter-generational conversations between emerging and established artists from across the globe.