MARTIN STRANKA (B. 1984)
Beautiful Accidents
(i) My Secret Eden
(ii) This Is My Church
(iii) Walking on Water
(iv) Life is a Game
(v) There Is No Goodbye
(vi) Never Been Happier
(vii) Take Me Anywhere
(viii) Don’t Ruin My Fantasy
(i) signed, titled, numbered and dated '"My Secret Eden" 15/15 Martin Stranka Stranka 2023' (on the reverse)
(ii) signed, titled, numbered and dated '"This Is My Church" 15/15 Martin Stranka Stranka 2023' (on the reverse)
(iii) signed, titled, numbered and dated '"Walking on Water" 15/15 Martin Stranka Stranka 2023' (on the reverse)
(iv) signed, titled, numbered and dated '"Life Is a Game" 15/15 Martin Stranka Stranka 2023' (on the reverse)
(v) signed, titled, numbered and dated '"There Is No Goodbye" 15/15 Martin Stranka Stranka 2023' (on the reverse)
(vi) signed, titled, numbered and dated '"Never Been Happier" 15/15 Martin Stranka Stranka 2023' (on the reverse)
(vii) signed, titled, numbered and dated '"Take Me Anywhere" 15/15 Martin Stranka Stranka 2023' (on the reverse)
(viii) signed, titled, numbered and dated '"Don't Ruin My Fantasy" 15/15 Martin Stranka Stranka 2023' (on the reverse)
pigment ink on Museo Silver Rag 300gsm archival paper, in artist's frame
31¹⁄₂ x 23⁵⁄₈in. (69.1 x 99.2cm.)
Photographed in 2022 and printed in 2023, this work is number fifteen from an edition of fifteen

Private Collection (acquired directly from the artist).

Prague, Pop—Up Gallery, Martin Stranka: Boyhood Exhibition, 2022 (another from the edition exhibited).
New York, Carnegie Hall, Best of the Show Exhibition: International Photography Awards, 2022 (another from the edition exhibited).

This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist.

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.
This lot has been imported from outside the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime. Customs Duty (as applicable) will be added to the hammer price and Import VAT at 20% will be charged on the Duty inclusive hammer price. VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer's premium and will be shown separately on our invoice. Please see Conditions of Sale.
Please note this lot is the property of a consumer. See H1 of the Conditions of Sale.

Conditions of Sale
FAQs
This lot is offered by Christie Manson & Woods Ltd

Brought to you by

Lot Essay

In eight hauntingly beautiful images, Czech photographer Martin Stranka treads the fine line between the aesthetic and the sinister. The artist has composed each of his photographs like a film still – a moment of frozen narrative, with the camera seemingly about to whir back into movement, to tell the story of shock and loss. The sense of pathos is heightened by the fact that in each photograph, impossibly beautiful young people gaze at the viewer in the same pose, with only the background and props revealing any hint of preceding events. Recalling the filmic photographs of Gregory Crewdson and Jeff Wall, in the series Beautiful Accidents Stranka explores our fascination with the incomplete narrative: ‘in these deliberately visually unfinished stories I seek the boundary between visual appeal and a dramatic scene that can change human life in an instant,’ he has written. Recognised with an International Photography Award in 2022 for this series, the artist has created evocative and arresting testaments to the power of visual storytelling.