Gustav Metzger
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Gustav Metzger (born 1926) is an artist and political activist who developed the concept of Auto-Destructive Art. Together with John Sharkey, he initiated the Destruction in Art Symposium in 1966. Metzger is recognized for his protests in the political and artistic realms.
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[edit] Biography
Metzger was born to Polish-Jewish parents in Nuremberg, Germany in 1926 and came to Britain as a refugee under the auspices of the Refugee Children Movement.
He has been stateless since the 1940s.
[edit] Career
Metzger is known as a leading exponent of the Auto-Destructive Art[1] and the Art Strike movements. He was also involved in the Fluxus movement.
He was also active in the Committee of 100 and took part in their early anti-nuclear base campaigns of direct action and occupation.
In 1959 he published the first auto-destructive manifesto Auto-Destructive Art. This was given as a lecture to the Architecture Association in 1964, which was taken over by students as an artistic 'Happening'.
In 1961, he participated in the Festival of Misfits with the Fluxus group, in Gallery One, London. He exhibited the front page of the Daily Mirror covering the Vietnam War. His contribution was rejected and removed by other participants.
In 2005 he selected EASTinternational which he proclaimed to be "The art exhibition without the art.".[2]
Metzger has continued to make challenging art works around the world. He currently lives and works in East London.
[edit] Works
[edit] Public Demonstration of Auto-Destructive Art
(Original made in 1960, remade as 'Recreation of First Public Demonstration of Auto-Destructive Art' in 2004). [3]
[edit] Demonstration at the South Bank, London, 1961
[edit] Acid action painting
| “ | Acid action painting. Height 7 ft, Length 12' 6". Depth 6 ft. Materials: nylon, hydrochloric acid, metal. Technique. 3 nylon canvases coloured white black red are arranged behind each other, in this order. Acid is painted, flung and sprayed onto the nylon which corrodes at point of contact within 15 seconds. | „ |
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—Gustav Metzger, [4] |
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[edit] Construction with glass
| “ | Construction with glass. Height 13 ft. Width 9' 6". Materials. Glass, metal, adhesive tape. Technique. The glass sheets suspended by adhesive tape fall on to the concrete ground in a pre-arranged sequence. | „ |
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—Gustav Metzger, [4] |
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[edit] Liquid Crystal Environment
(Original made in 1965, remade in 2005). [5]
[edit] Historic Photographs
Enlarged press photographs of catastrophic events of the 20th century.[6]
[edit] Recreation of First Public Demonstration of Auto-Destructive Art
A recreation of the original demonstration made in 1960. [7] An integral piece of the installation at the Tate Britain, a bag containing rubbish, was erroneously disposed by a cleaner on 30 June 2004. [8] Metzger declared the piece ruined and created a new bag as a replacement.
[edit] Influences
The painter David Bomberg taught Metzger and was influential in his development.[6]
[edit] Influenced
Around the same time, he was lecturing at Ealing Art College, where one of his students was rock musician Pete Townshend, who later cited Metzger's concepts as an influence for his famous guitar-smashing during performances of The Who. He has also influenced the self-eating computer virus works by the digital artist Joseph Nechvatal.[9]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Alan Liu, (2004) The Laws of Cool, University of Chicago Press, pp. 330-331.
- ^ BBC news website
- ^ Recreation of First Public Demonstration of Auto-Destructive Art, Tate Online, retrieved 2006-08-30.
- ^ a b Aesthetic Ideology in the Information Age, USCB, retrieved 2006-08-31
- ^ Liquid Crystal Environment, Tate Online, retrieved 2006-08-30.
- ^ a b Jones, A. Introduction to the Historic Photographs of Gustav Metzger, Forum for Holocaust Studies, University College London, retrieved 2006-08-30.
- ^ Recreation of First Public Demonstration of Auto-Destructive Art, Tate Online, retrieved 2006-08-30.
- ^ Jones, S. 2004. How auto-destructive art work got destroyed too soon , The Guardian, retrieved 2006-08-31.
- ^ Alan Liu, (2004) The Laws of Cool, University of Chicago Press, pp. 331-336 & 485-486.
