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Gustav Metzger's artistic production finds its base in topical political, economic, and ecological themes. For example, in his manifestos and demonstrations he reacts to the threat posed by the global nuclear arms race, which he also has opposed in a political context since 1956. His auto-destructive art concept, an aesthetic "thematisation" of the twentieth century's destructive potential, was intended as an attack on the capitalist system and the art industry.
Auto-destructive art is a comprehensive theory for action in the field of the plastic arts in the post-second world war period. The action is not limited to theory of art and the production of art works. It includes social action. Auto-destructive art is committed to a left-wing revolutionary position in politics, and to struggles against future wars.' (Gustav Metzger, introduction to Auto-Destructive Art: Metzger at AA) Facsimile edition of a lecture transcript given by German-born artist Gustav Metzger at the Architectural Association in February 1965. This new edition is published 50 years on since its original printing in June 1965 by the AA's Action Communications Centre (A.C.C), reigniting Metzger's urgent and ever-relevant arguments which confront society's obsession with destruction and the detrimental effects of machinery on human life.'
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Act or Perish! accompanies the first extensive overview of Auto-Destructive art pioneer Gustav Metzger (born 1926), organized in 2015-16 at the Centre of Contemporary Art in Torun and Kunsthall Oslo and Stiftelsen Kunstnernes Hus in Oslo. The exhibition catalog provides readers with a rich array of theoretical contributions, including a conversation between Dobrila Denegri and Yoko Ono, Ivor Davies, Hermann Nitsch and Jon Hendricks, as well as Metzger's own writings. Essayists Pontus Kyander, Andrew Wilson, Mathieu Copeland, Dobrila Denegri, Leanne Dmyterko, Hans Ulrich Obrist and Manuel Olveira take up different aspects of Metzger's work, from the artist's early political activism to his experimentation with painting and his drafting of the manifestos for Auto-Destructive Art, providing an invaluable and much-awaited document of a pioneer of postwar art.
Bringing together more than 350 texts written between 1953 and 2016, this comprehensive volume establishes artist and activist Gustav Metzger (1926-2017) as one of the towering figures of the 20th century, a long-overdue recognition of Metzger's influential vision. Renowned for his use of unstable materials and chemical reactions to create artworks that embody processes of change, destruction and renewal, Metzger was also a prolific writer, theoretician and satirist. His interest in technology and science and his anti-nuclear activism influenced his development of the concepts of auto-destructive and auto-creative art, terms he coined with his manifestos on "Auto-Destructive Art" in 1959 and...
This title is published to accompany the Serpentine Gallery's major exhibition of work by the influential artist and activist Gustav Metzger, examining his life-long exploration of politics, ecology and the destructive powers of 20th-century society. Metzger's career has spanned over 60 years and this is the most extensive survey of his work to be shown in the UK. Decades draws together the themes and methodologies that have informed the London-based artist's practice from 1959 until the present day. The broad cross-section of works on view include Metzger's auto-destructive and auto-creative works of the 1960s, such as his pioneering liquid crystal projections; the ongoing Historic Photographs series, which responds to major events and catastrophes; and later works exploring ecological issues, globalisation and commercialisation. Film footage of seminal performances and actions are exhibited, as well as a new, participative installation using the archive of newspapers Metzger has been collecting since 1995.
In volume 16 of The Conversation Series, Hans Ulrich Obrist presents an in-depth exchange with the venerable German-born artist and activist Gustav Metzger, which illuminates the artist's fascinating life and 60-year career. In 1959, Metzger penned a manifesto of Auto-destructive art, which states in part, "Auto-destructive paintings, sculptures and constructions have a lifetime varying from a few moments to 20 years. When the disintegrative process is complete, the work is to be removed from the site and scrapped." In this volume, Metzger talks to Obrist about his past and present association with Auto-destructive art, how he has come to fuse his art practice with his political commitment to human rights and ecology, how he escaped the Holocaust at the age of 13 and the many projects he has yet to realize.
Visitors to Lift Off will be submersed in Gustav Metzger's world of creative experimentation and activism between the late 1950s and early 1970s. Bringing together archive, film, sculpture and installations, this ambitious exhibition focuses on Metzger's auto-creative work - the alter ego of his better-known auto-destructive practice. The exhibition includes Metzger's landmark piece Liquid Crystal Environment (1965 remade 2005) on loan from Tate. This hypnotic environment is composed of projections that create constantly shifting psychedelic patterns. The exhibition will also showcase works that use air, water and heat that Metzger first made in a university laboratory in Swansea in 1969 and which have not been seen since. The exhibition includes a new film of Metzger in conversation with curator Elizabeth Fisher, reflecting on this aspect of his practice.
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