Gustav Metzger

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Metzger, 1960s
Born April 10, 1926(1926-04-10)
Nürnberg, Germany
Died March 1, 2017(2017-03-01) (aged 90)
London, United Kingdom
Web compart, Wikipedia
Collections Generali, Tate

Gustav Metzger (1926–2017) was an artist and political activist who developed the concept of Auto-Destructive Art and the Art Strike. Together with John Sharkey, he initiated the Destruction in Art Symposium in 1966.

Metzger was born in Nuremburg in 1926 as the son of orthodox Jews originally from Poland. During the Holocaust he lost nearly his entire family. He and his older brother were the only ones able to escape from the national socialist regime. They fled to England in 1939 with the help of the Refugee Children Movement. Metzger began studying art, first at the Cambridge School of Art in 1945, and then at Sir John Cass Institute in Aldgate, London. A painting course at Borough Polytechnic followed until 1953, and study trips to Antwerp and Paris. Metzger was actively involved in protest against nuclear armament from the late 1950s, and was one of the co-founders, together with the philosopher Bertrand Russel, of the antiwar protest group “Committee of 100.”

From 1959 on, Metzger developed the concept of “auto-destructive art” based on the political and ecological themes of his era, such as the nuclear arms race and ecological destruction. In his first manifesto, he defined this as a “form of public art for industrial societies” that focuses on the twentieth century’s potential for annihilation by means of self-destructive elements. Processes of dissolution thus take center stage in many of his works and actions, such as the corrosion of canvases by acid or the erosion of steel monuments. Metzger organized the seminal event of artistic activities forming around the theme of destruction; the Destruction in Art Symposium in London in 1966. The fleeting nature of Metzger’s works is an attack on the capitalist art market, as it were, as they refuse a commodification of art. His call to go on an art strike in 1974 is further evidence of this position. Metzger did, in fact, withdraw for quite some time from the art world. He also developed the principle of “auto-creative art” and explored the idea of using computer technology for art early on. Pete Townshend from The Who called him a role model for smashing guitars on stage, of which Jimi Hendrix is the most well-known proponent. Renowned bands inserted Metzger’s experiments with liquid crystals in slide projections that steadily changed colors from the heat as a visual effect during concerts, emphasizing the psychedelic moment. In the 1990s, a workgroup formed that dealt directly with the Holocaust and the media treatment of humanitarian catastrophes, and for which, the historical photographs of Metzger served as base material.

From 1948 he was represented at a number of major exhibitions—including the documenta 5 (1972) and 13 (2012) and also at the Venice Biennial 2004. He died in London in 2017. (Source)

Manifestos, writings

  • three texts on Auto-Destructive Art, 1959-61.
  • "Four Manifestoes by Gustav Metzger", Signals 1:2, London, Sep 1964, p 14.
  • Auto-Destructive Art: a Talk at the Architectural Association, London, London, 1965, 27 pp; facs. repr. as Auto-Destructive Art: Metzger at AA, pref. Andrew Wilson, London: Bedford Press, 2015, 27 pp. A lecture transcript given by Metzger at the Architectural Association on 24 Feb 1965. (English)
  • Documents 1959-1992, ed. Harry Ruhé, Amsterdam: Galerie A, 1992, [43] leaves. Collection of reprints of work by Gustav Metzger. Includes manifestos, off-prints, programmes, photographs, press releases, and biographical details.
  • "Art Strike 1977-1980", Yawn 38 (Mar 1993), p 1848.
  • Damaged Nature, Auto-Destructive Art, London: Coracle, 1996, 110 pp. Contains two essays and manifestos by Metzger ("Nature demised resurrects as environment", "Auto-destructive art"), together with Andrew Wilson's essay and an extended chronology and bibliography by Clive Phillpot. [1]
  • Manifeste, Schriften, Konzepte, ed. Justin Hoffmann, Munich: Silke Schreiber, 1997. (German)
  • Bibliography

Interviews

Exhibitions

Catalogues

  • Gustav Metzger, Oxford: Museum of Modern Art, 1999, 92 pp. Texts by Astrid Bowron, Kerry Brougher, Norman Rosenthal. (English)
  • Ein Schnitt entlang der Zeit, Nürnberg: Verlag für moderne Kunst Nürnberg, 1999. (German)
  • Geschichte Geschichte, ed. Sabine Breitwieser, Vienna: Generali Foundation, and Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz, 2005. (German)
  • EASTinternational: selector Gustav Metzger, ed. Lynda Morris, Norwich: Norwich Gallery, 2005, [144] pp. (English)
  • Gustav Metzger, ed. Hanna Wróblewska, Warsaw: Zachęta Narodowa Galeria Sztuki, 2007, 94 pp. [4] (Polish)
  • Decades, 1959-2009, forew. Julia Peyton-Jones and Hans Ulrich Obrist, eds. Sophie O'Brien and Melissa Larner, London: Serpentine Galleries & Koenig Books, 2009, 111 pp. Text by Norman Rosenthal, Sophie O'Brien, Clive Phillpot. (English)
  • Gustav Metzger: Historic Photographs, eds. Gary Carrion-Murayari and Massimiliano Gioni, New York: New Museum, 2011, 70 pp. [5] (English)
  • Null Object: Gustav Metzger Thinks About Nothing, London: Black Dog, 2012, 95 pp.
  • Years without Art, eds. Samuel Dangel and Sören Schmeling, Freiburg im Breisgau: modo, 2012, 160 pp. (German)/(English)
  • Lift Off!, Cambridge UK: Kettle's Yard, 2014, 72 pp. [6] (English)
  • Act or Perish! A Retrospective, Dijon: Les presses du réel, 2016, 224 pp. Published following the 2015 retrospectives in Torun and Oslo. [7] (English)

Literature

Links

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