The image shows a black-and-white graphic with a black background and white text. At the top right, it reads: "FROM £5.99 ONE WAY TAXES & CHARGES INCLUDED." In the middle at the bottom is the name of the airline Ryanair along with the slogan "FLY CHEAPER." At the bottom right, there is a black-and-white logo, and below it, the website "www.bremen-tourism.de" is displayed in a white, wave-like form.
Gustav Metzger, Public Adverts, Cheap Flights, 2005–2009 (detail), Private Collection
GUSTAV METZGER
“I have nothing to say and that is politics.” Gustav Metzger
Refugee, survivor, stateless person, carpenter, gardener, anarchist, antiquarian, environmental activist, intellectual, and artist. Gustav Metzger was born in Nuremberg in 1926. One of his earliest memories is of his mother bathing him. At the age of four, he witnessed the Nazi parades. At the age of twelve, in January 1939, he arrived in England on one of the last Jewish Kindertransports. His parents and most of his family were murdered by the Nazis.
Confronted with the murderous violence of human beings at an early age, Gustav Metzger regarded drawing attention to the systematic destruction of nature and fighting for its preservation and respect as a matter of existential importance. For that reason, at the height of the nuclear arms race, he wrote Auto-Destructive Art manifestos calling for art created for its own destruction. In 1960, along with Bertrand Russell, he cofounded the Committee of 100. Composing manifestos, organizing symposia, undertaking interventions in the public space, and, above all, participating in contemporary discourse, remained fundamental to Metzger throughout his life. Many of his works address the inexplicable nature of violence, history, and, in particular, the Holocaust, promoting understanding and opposing the modes of suppression and forgetting.
The exhibition Gustav Metzger at TOWERMMK is the first museum retrospective to be devoted to the artist (1926–2017) in Germany and is curated by Susanne Pfeffer and Julia Eichler. Some of the works are on public display for the first time.
“Born in Nuremberg, at home in London, he is perhaps the most important artist that Germany never had.” Ben Lewis
Information in IS
Gustav Metzger was an artist.
He lived from 1926 to 2017.
This is the first exhibition in Germany that looks back on his art.
Some works of art are on show for the very first time.
Gustav Metzger was not just an artist.
He also had other jobs.
He was a carpenter.
And a gardener.
He collected objects.
And was interested in protecting nature.
Gustav Metzger was a thinker.
He was brave and said what he thought.
But some people didn’t like that.
Gustav Metzger once said:
I have nothing to say.
And that is politics.
Gustav Metzger was born in Nuremberg in 1926.
And in 1933 Adolf Hitler and his political party came to power.
They were the so-called Nazis.
They were in power until 1945, the end of the Second World War.
The Nazis banned all other political parties.
They persecuted and murdered groups of people:
— Jews
— Homosexuals
— People with disabilities
— People whe were against the Nazi Party
— Outcasts
— For Example:
— Homeless People and beggars
— Sinti und Roma.
— This is a small group of people
— They have lived in Europe for over 100 years.
Gustav Metzger was Jewish.
So the Nazis took away his German citizenship.
From then on Gustav Metzger was stateless.
He had to leave Germany when he was a child.
He was taken to England.
He was put on a train with other Jewish children.
That is how he survived the Nazis.
But his parents were not allowed to leave Germany.
The Nazis murdered them.
Because they were Jewish.
The first thing Gustav Metzger remembers is
his mother giving him a bath.
Then when he was 4 he saw the Nazis marching.
And when he was 12 he arrived in England.
He stayed in England.
Even when the Second World War was over.
Gustav Metzger saw violence as a child.
He understood what violence was.
How violence destroys and kills.
That is why he fought against destruction.
Against the destruction of nature.
He made people aware of this destruction.
That was his battle for survival.
He protected nature.
And wanted people to respect nature.
After the Second World War the Cold War began.
It lasted until the start of the 1990s.
It was a war without a battle.
At that time the countries in the East
and the countries in the West were enemies.
Both sides had nuclear weapons.
Nuclear weapons can quickly destroy people and nature.
In the Cold War the countries were prepared to use these weapons.
In those years Gustav Metzger discovered a new type of art.
He called it Auto-destructive Art.
Destruction is a step in creating these works of art.
Gustav Metzger wrote political texts his whole life.
He held political meetings in public places for everyone.
He said what he thought about current topics.
That was very important to him.
The main idea in his works is always:
— There is no reason for violence.
— There was no reason for the violence against Jews.
— And no reason for murdering Jews.
Gustav Metzger wanted everyone to understand.
He didn’t want people to ignore what had happened.
And he didn’t want them to forget what had happened.
Ben Lewis is an art critic from Great Britain.
He once said this about Gustav Metzger:
He was born in Nuremberg.
He was at home in London.
He is possibly the most important artist
that Germany never had.
