Karen Marta

A visionary artist and radical thinker, Gustav Metzger asked provocative questions about the role of the artist and of conventional forms of artmaking and display. In this richly illustrated book, Metzger tells the story of his life and work in a series of interviews with the curator Hans Ulrich Obrist. He recounts his Orthodox Jewish childhood in 1930s Nuremberg and his arrival in England as part of the Kindertransport before shedding light on his development as an artist, including his show more early contributions to computer art, his leading role in the Destruction in Art Symposium of 1966, and his call for an ‘art strike’ from 1977–80. An artist for our times, Metzger’s uncompromising commitment to combating environmental destruction was fundamental to his understanding of art as a vehicle for change. This publication speaks emphatically to the undimmed urgency of Metzger’s artistic position, offering an insight into his interests in ecology and nature and, in the later part of his life, the threat of extinction and the motto he adapted from W. H. Auden: ‘We must become idealists or die.’ show less

But it's my constant habit, whenever anybody states anything, to apply my mind, especially whenever the speaker seems to me to be intelligent. And since I'm eager to learn what he means, I question him searchingly and backtrack in my ponderings and see whether what's been said is consistent, so that I can learn. But if the speaker seems to me to be useless, I don't ask those persistent questions, and I don't care what he says. And you'll know by this which people I consider to be show more intelligent. You'll find me, in fact, relentless about what such a man says, questioning him in order to learn something that will be helpful to me. show less

Not extraordinary.

Worth a skip.

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