Gustav Metzger: And Then Came the Environment
Installation view, ‘Gustav Metzger. And Then Came the Environment,’ Hauser & Wirth Downtown Los Angeles 13 September 2024 – 12 January 2025 © The Estate of Gustav Metzger and The Gustav Metzger Foundation. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2024. Courtesy The Estate of Gustav Metzger and Hauser & Wirth Photo: Keith Lubow
Los Angeles… Gustav Metzger. And Then Came the Environment,’ opened on the 13th of September in conjunction with the Getty’s PST ART initiative, ‘Art & Science Collide,’ Hauser & Wirth Downtown Los Angeles presents ‘the pathbreaking late artist’s first solo exhibition in LA and his second major presentation in the United States. ‘And Then Came the Environment’ presents a range of Metzger’s scientific works merging art and science from 1961 onward, highlighting his advocacy for environmental awareness and the possibilities for the transformation of society, as well as his latest experimental works, created in 2014. The exhibition title comes from Metzger’s groundbreaking 1992 essay ‘Nature Demised’ wherein he proclaims an urgent need to redefine our understanding of nature in relation to the environment. Metzger explains that the politicized term ‘environment’ creates a disconnect from the natural world, manipulating public perception to obscure pollution and exploitation caused by wars and industrialization, and that it should be renamed ‘Damaged Nature.’
Gustav Metzger Liquid Crystal Environment 1966/2021 7 Kodak SAV 2050 slide projectors, control units, rotating polarized filters, liquid crystals Dimension variable Installation view, ‘Gustav Metzger,’ Hauser & Wirth Somerset, Bruton, UK, 2021 © The Estate of Gustav Metzger and The Gustav Metzger Foundation Photo: Ken Adlard
An early proponent of the ecology movement and an ardent activist, Gustav Metzger (1926 – 2017) was born in Nuremberg to Polish-Jewish parents, and fled Nazi Germany to England when he was 12 with his brother via the Kindertransport. While working as a gardener, he began his art studies in 1945 in war-embroiled Cambridge, a nexus for scientific experimentation and debate as the Atomic Age was dawning. By the late 1950s, Metzger was deeply involved in anti-nuclear protests and developed 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,’ a synthesis that gained wide recognition in Europe in the 1960s through his exhibitions, lecture-demonstrations and writing.
Gustav Metzger Dancing Tubes 1968 Plastic tubing, compressed air Dimensions variable Photo: Jhoeko West Den Haag
Metzger’s quenchless curiosity about new materials and gadgets—from projectors and electronics to cholesteric liquid crystals and silicate minerals such as ‘mica’—led him to conduct experiments in and out of laboratories in collaboration with leading scientists in an effort to amplify the unpredictable beauty and uncertainty of materials in transformation: ‘the art of change, of movement, of growth.’ By the 1970s, increasingly concerned with ethical ramifications, Metzger became closely involved with the British Society for Social Responsibility in Science, raising awareness of ‘grotesque’ environmental degradation and social alienation and arguing for ‘old attitudes and new skills’ to bring science, technology, society and nature into harmony. He initiated itinerant projects to draw attention to the immense pollution caused by car emissions, a pursuit that gained momentum with his proposal for the first UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm in 1972 and was later partially realized in 2007 at the Sharjah Biennial.
Installation view, ‘Gustav Metzger. And Then Came the Environment,’ Hauser & Wirth Downtown Los Angeles 13 September 2024 – 12 January 2025 © The Estate of Gustav Metzger and The Gustav Metzger Foundation. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2024. Courtesy The Estate of Gustav Metzger and Hauser & Wirth Photo: Keith Lubow
The artworks on view in ‘And Then Came the Environment’ reveal Metzger’s lifelong interest in drawing and gesture, presenting works on paper from the mid-1950s alongside models, installations and later, Light Drawings that underpin the artist’s desire for human interaction amidst the reliance on technology that continues to this day. Following his death, The Gustav Metzger Foundation was established to further Metzger’s work and carry on his legacy. Exhibited for the first time in Los Angeles, works here include the earliest film documentation of Metzger’s bold chemical experiments on the South Bank in London (‘Auto-Destructive Art: The Activities of G. Metzger,’ directed by H. Liversidge, 1963); his first mechanized sculpture with Liquid Crystals—’Earth from Space’ (1966)—and the stunning, large-scale projection, ‘Liquid Crystal Environment’ (1966), one of the earliest public demonstrations of the material that makes Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs), now omnipresent in our computer, telephone and watch screens. ‘And Then Came the Environment’ also presents early kinetic projects Metzger developed in the Filtration Laboratory of the University College of Swansea in 1968 (‘Dancing Tubes’ and ‘Mica Cube’); various iterations of his projects against car pollution including the model ‘Earth Minus Environment’ (1992); and the Light Drawing series (2014), made using fiber-optic light directed by air or hand.
Gustav Metzger giving the Lecture/Demonstration ‘The Chemical Revolution in Art’ at the Society of Arts, Cambridge University, October 11, 1965, with projections of ink in glycerin Photo: Richard Gloucester
The exhibition will be complemented by a new short film created by artist Justin Richburg, who animated Childish Gambino’s 2018 hit ‘Feels like Summer,’ which references climate change. Richburg’s piece was inspired by and responds to Metzger’s 1992 essay ‘Nature Demised.’ The film represents the first time Metzger’s ideas have been directly expressed through a new medium, thus reflecting his interests in ongoing transformation and his conviction that younger generations were the most essential, urgent audiences for his work. In 2012, five years before his death at the age of 90, Metzger wrote:
“The future of the world is what we are after. We start with the young and then when the young are twelve, fifteen, and then twenty-one, they can enter politics, and if they have got this initiation/introduction to key issues … it will make an enormous difference to the future of the world.”
Gustav Metzger Light Drawing 2014 Photographic print on aluminum, 4 parts Each: 51 x 40.5 x 3 cm / 20 1/8 x 16 x 1 1/8 in Overall: 102 x 81 x 3 cm / 40 1/8 x 31 7/8 x 1 1/8 in Photo: Damian Griffiths
‘And Then Came the Environment’ coincides with two major European institutional exhibitions devoted to Metzger’s oeuvre and contributions: ‘Gustav Metzger. All of Us Together,’ curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Vassilis Oikonomopoulos and Arthur Fouray, at LUMA, Arles, France (30 June 2024 – onwards) and ‘Gustav Metzger,’ curated by Susanne Pfeffer and Julia Eichler, at Museum für Moderne Kunst (MMK), Frankfurt, Germany (27 July 2024 – 5 January 2025).
Gustav Metzger Earth Minus Environment (Model) (detail) 1992 Wood, perspex, model cars Unique 122 x 122 cm Plinth 130 x 130 x 45 cm
Publication
On the occasion of the exhibition, Hauser & Wirth Publishers will release ‘Gustav Metzger: Interviews with Hans Ulrich Obrist.’ Drawing from more than two decades of conversations with curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, artistic director of the Serpentine, this richly illustrated volume will offer a comprehensive overview of Metzger’s life, approach to art, and political activism. With a candor that comes from speaking to someone who knows him well, Metzger discusses his childhood in pre-Second World War Nuremberg, his participation in and co-organization of the 1966 Destruction in Art Symposium (DIAS) after his move to London, and his visionary thinking about environmental destruction, among many other topics. This panoramic book, which is complemented with a new, rigorously researched chronology, will be a vital resource for Metzger scholars and newcomers alike. The publication is edited by Karen Marta with the support of Alexander Scrimgeour, managing editor and Michaela Unterdörfer, executive director of Hauser & Wirth Publishers.
A book launch and talk with Hans Ulrich Obrist will be held at Hauser & Wirth Downtown Los Angeles was held on September 15th at 11 am. While a New York launch event took place at Hauser & Wirth, 18th Street on 21 September.
Gustav Metzger at his first lecture demonstration at the Temple Gallery, London, June 1960 © National Portrait Gallery, London Photo: possibly by John Cox, for Ida Kar
Learning
A comprehensive learning program, interactive events and additional resources will be developed in conjunction with the exhibition, inspired by the life and work of Gustav Metzger. Further details to be announced in September.
About PST ART
Hauser & Wirth is part of PST ART as a Gallery Program Participant. Returning in September 2024 with its latest edition, ‘PST ART: Art & Science Collide,’ this landmark regional event explores the intersections of art and science, both past and present. PST ART is presented by Getty.
Information can be found about ‘PST ART: Art & Science Collide,’ here. Please find information about Gustav’s latest exhibition here and his current book publication here. The magazine did a highlight of Gustav Metzger Interviews with Hans Ulrich Obrist, which can be found here. For more information about the exhibit, please visit the Hauser & Wirth site. Also, follow the gallery on Instagram, Facebook, X, and YouTube for more updates on this exhibit.
