Local Los Angeles Students Respond to Gustav Metzger

Gustav Metzger’s practice involves experimental works that merge art and science from 1961 onward, highlighting the artist’s advocacy for environmental awareness. Little known to US students, his work provides an excellent platform for much-needed debate. During the discussion, and through interviews recorded in the video above, many students made connections between Metzger’s work and their own artistic practices, noting how resonant his activism and concern for the environment was today. 

The conversation provided an opportunity for students to not only articulate their views on Metzger and his creative process, but also collectively express the challenges they face as the generation of artists tasked to confront environmental destruction.  The group recognized Metzger as a visionary who predicted the urgent issues that would come to define their art and lives.  

Gustav Metzger (1926 – 2017) was born in Nuremberg to Polish-Jewish parents, fleeing Nazi Germany via the Kindertransport to England when he was 12. While working as a gardener there in 1945, he began his art studies in Cambridge, a nexus for scientific experimentation as the Atomic Age was dawning. By the late 1950s, Metzger was deeply involved in anti-nuclear protests and developing his manifestos on ‘auto-destructive' and ‘auto-creative' art. These powerful statements were aimed at ‘the integration of art with the advances of science and technology,’ gaining Metzger recognition in Europe through his exhibitions, lecture-demonstrations and writings. 

Throughout his life, Metzger had a curiosity toward new materials and tools. Experimenting with projectors, electronics, liquid crystals and silicate minerals such as ‘mica,’ he collaborated with scientists to explore transformations from one state to another, describing this as ‘the art of change, of movement, of growth.’ By the 1970s, Metzger was also closely involved with the British Society for Social Responsibility in Science, raising awareness of increasing environmental degradation and social alienation and advocating for ‘old attitudes and new skills’ to harmonize science, technology, society and nature. 

Metzger’s lifelong activism to combat environmental destruction was fundamental to his provocative questioning of the role of the artist in society. As part of the gallery’s commitment to working with the artist’s estate, this exhibition and Learning program have continued to raise awareness of Metzger’s dedication to social activism and belief in public art as a vehicle for change. 

 All Images: Sarah M. Golonka | smg photography