Gustav Metzger

Gustav Metzger was born in Nuremberg, Germany, on 10th April 1926 to Polish-Jewish parents and arrived in Britain on the Kindertransport in 1939.

Much of his immediate family perished in the Holocaust. From 1945-53, he studied art in Cambridge, London, Antwerp, and Oxford – for much of this time associated with the artist David Bomberg. By 1958, Metzger was becoming heavily involved in anti-capitalist, anti-consumerist movements, and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. In 1960 he was a founder member of the Committee of 100 and this led to a short imprisonment in 1961 with Bertrand Russell and other members of the Committee for encouraging mass non-violent civil disobedience. Metzger’s political activism provided the foundation for his first artist manifesto in 1959, titled ‘Auto-destructive Art’, which he described ‘as a desperate last-minute subversive political weapon… an attack on the capitalist system… (an attack also on art dealers and collectors who manipulate modern art for profit).’

Auto-destructive art – a public art form – sought to provide a mirror of a social and political system that Metzger felt was progressing towards total obliteration. At the heart of his practice, which spanned over 70 years, are a series of constantly opposing yet interdependent forces such as destruction and creation. He has had solo exhibitions around the world, including Hauser & Wirth, Somerset, UK (2021); Circuit, Lausanne (2018); West, Den Haag (2018); MAMAC, Nice (2017); MUSAC, León (2016); Tate Britain, London (2016); Museo Jumex, Mexico City (2015); CoCA Torun, Poland (2015); Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin (2015); Kunsthall Oslo and Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo (2015); Tel Aviv Museum of Art (2014); Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge (2014); New Museum, New York (2011) and Serpentine Galleries, London (2009).