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The scale of Gustav Metzger's achievements and his contribution to contemporary culture are clearly demonstrated in Ken McMullen's comprehensive film. Gustav Metzger speaks candidly and brilliantly of the influences which have shaped both his own work and the culture of our time. >From Freud to Vermeer, from the importance of drawing to a far-reaching discussion of auto-destructive art, Metzger gives profound and lucid insights into the meaning and relevance of art, as well as highlighting the importance of understanding the destructive impulses in human society.
Gustav Metzger witnessed the rise of Nazism as a small child in Nürnberg in the early 1930s. He escaped to Great Britain aged thirteen and trained as a cabinet-maker and an artist before founding auto-destructive art in 1959 which has influenced a generation of younger artists from The Who to the artist and writer Stewart Home.
Fusing art with politics and social activism, Metzger was a co-founder with Bertrand Russell of the Committee of 100, he convened the now legendary Destruction in Art Symposium in 1966, and proposed the first Art Strike in 1974.
Ken McMullen's Metzger was commissioned by Arts Council England as part of the Pioneers in Art and Science documentary series, and is designed to fully utilize the potential of the DVD format.
Gustav Metzger's work is featured in Tate Britain's Art and the 60s: This Was Tomorrow, the definitive exhibition of British art in the 60s, from 30 June to 26 September 2004. To coincide with the exhibition, Pioneers in Art and Science: Metzger will be available from the Art and the 60s exhibition shop as well as Tate Britain and Tate Modern gallery shops from 30 June 2004.
Ken McMullen is a film director and artist living currently in London. His feature films and shorts have involved collaborations with artists, physicists and philosophers including Tadeusz Kantor, Stuart Brisley, Marc Chaimowicz, Brian Eno, Lindsay Anderson and Jacques Derrida, while his short film There We Are John was the last filmed interview with Derek Jarman.
This DVD was generously supported by the University of the Arts London and the European Commission, and commissioned and funded by Arts Council England through its Pilot Publications and Recordings Programme as part of its Pioneers in Art and Science initiative.
Pioneers in Art and Science: Metzger (ISBN 0-7287-1039-0) can be purchased online at: http://www.pinnacle-entertainment.co.uk/
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