Gustav Metzger
19 May - 03 Jul 2011
Gustav Metzger
Historic Photographs: No.1: Liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto, April 19–28 1943, 1995/2009
Photograph mounted on Foamex board and rubble, 59 x 83 in (150 x 211 cm)
© 2010 Gustav Metzger. Courtesy Serpentine Gallery. Photo: Sylvain Deleu
Historic Photographs: No.1: Liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto, April 19–28 1943, 1995/2009
Photograph mounted on Foamex board and rubble, 59 x 83 in (150 x 211 cm)
© 2010 Gustav Metzger. Courtesy Serpentine Gallery. Photo: Sylvain Deleu
GUSTAV METZGER
Historic Photographs
19 May - 3 July, 2011
“Gustav Metzger: Historic Photographs” is the first US solo museum exhibition of the influential eighty-six-year-old artist and activist Gustav Metzger, and highlights his long engagement with historical trauma and representation. A survivor of the Holocaust, Metzger’s first-hand experience of displacement and destruction shaped his subsequent outlook on the relationship between art and society. Initially trained as a painter, Metzger published the Auto-Destructive Art Manifesto (1959), which called for the production of artworks with industrial materials and a limited lifespan which, in his words, “reenacts the obsession with destruction, the pummeling to which individuals and masses are subjected.” These ideas were most dramatically realized in London in 1961, where he sprayed sheets of nylon with hydrochloric acid, burning them to tatters. His work has gone on to touch on issues of nuclear disarmament, war, and environmental destruction. Metzger has continuously viewed his role as an artist as one that seeks radical social and political change.
This exhibition will feature Metzger’s complete series of sculptural installations titled “Historic Photographs.” It confronts the viewer with some of the most powerful and tragic images of twentieth-century history, which Metzger has enlarged, obscured, or hidden. The resulting works invite interaction and provoke powerful physical experiences that transmit the emotional and intellectual weight of history. Begun in 1990, the series spans a range of historical events including the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto in 1943, the horrors of the Vietnam War, the Oklahoma City bombing, and environmental destruction in contemporary England. Metzger reconfigures the physical conditions of viewing a photograph through a variety of sculptural means. In To Crawl Into—Anschluss, Vienna, March 1938 (1996), a photograph, which depicts a group of Viennese Jews being forced to scrub the pavement, lies flat on the ground covered by a sheet. To see the image, viewers are forced to crawl underneath the sheet, and in the process, assume the same prostrate position as the individuals in the photograph. In Historic Photographs: Hitler-Youth, Eingeschweisst (1997/2009), a terrifying image is sealed between two sheets of metal and casually propped up against a wall, while in Historic Photographs: Fireman with Child, Oklahoma 1995 (1998–2007) an iconic photograph is hidden behind a wall of concrete blocks. The series as a whole confronts the ubiquitous nature of these iconic photos and constructs a relationship between the viewer and the image that is intimate, performative, and sustaining of historical memory. Metzger’s “Historic Photographs”force the viewer to reengage with historical trauma and speak to the inescapability of evil.
Gustav Metzger was born in Nuremberg, Germany in 1926. The artist currently lives and works primarily in London. His work was the subject of the recent exhibition “Gustav Mezger—Decades: 1959–2009” at the Serpentine Gallery, London. Solo exhibitions of his work have also been held at the Zacheta National Gallery, Warsaw and the Generali Foundation, Vienna. Metzger’s work included was most recently included in the 2010 Gwangju Biennale, “10000 Lives.”
“Gustav Metzger: Historic Photographs” is curated by Massimiliano Gioni, Associate Director and Director of Exhibitions.
Historic Photographs
19 May - 3 July, 2011
“Gustav Metzger: Historic Photographs” is the first US solo museum exhibition of the influential eighty-six-year-old artist and activist Gustav Metzger, and highlights his long engagement with historical trauma and representation. A survivor of the Holocaust, Metzger’s first-hand experience of displacement and destruction shaped his subsequent outlook on the relationship between art and society. Initially trained as a painter, Metzger published the Auto-Destructive Art Manifesto (1959), which called for the production of artworks with industrial materials and a limited lifespan which, in his words, “reenacts the obsession with destruction, the pummeling to which individuals and masses are subjected.” These ideas were most dramatically realized in London in 1961, where he sprayed sheets of nylon with hydrochloric acid, burning them to tatters. His work has gone on to touch on issues of nuclear disarmament, war, and environmental destruction. Metzger has continuously viewed his role as an artist as one that seeks radical social and political change.
This exhibition will feature Metzger’s complete series of sculptural installations titled “Historic Photographs.” It confronts the viewer with some of the most powerful and tragic images of twentieth-century history, which Metzger has enlarged, obscured, or hidden. The resulting works invite interaction and provoke powerful physical experiences that transmit the emotional and intellectual weight of history. Begun in 1990, the series spans a range of historical events including the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto in 1943, the horrors of the Vietnam War, the Oklahoma City bombing, and environmental destruction in contemporary England. Metzger reconfigures the physical conditions of viewing a photograph through a variety of sculptural means. In To Crawl Into—Anschluss, Vienna, March 1938 (1996), a photograph, which depicts a group of Viennese Jews being forced to scrub the pavement, lies flat on the ground covered by a sheet. To see the image, viewers are forced to crawl underneath the sheet, and in the process, assume the same prostrate position as the individuals in the photograph. In Historic Photographs: Hitler-Youth, Eingeschweisst (1997/2009), a terrifying image is sealed between two sheets of metal and casually propped up against a wall, while in Historic Photographs: Fireman with Child, Oklahoma 1995 (1998–2007) an iconic photograph is hidden behind a wall of concrete blocks. The series as a whole confronts the ubiquitous nature of these iconic photos and constructs a relationship between the viewer and the image that is intimate, performative, and sustaining of historical memory. Metzger’s “Historic Photographs”force the viewer to reengage with historical trauma and speak to the inescapability of evil.
Gustav Metzger was born in Nuremberg, Germany in 1926. The artist currently lives and works primarily in London. His work was the subject of the recent exhibition “Gustav Mezger—Decades: 1959–2009” at the Serpentine Gallery, London. Solo exhibitions of his work have also been held at the Zacheta National Gallery, Warsaw and the Generali Foundation, Vienna. Metzger’s work included was most recently included in the 2010 Gwangju Biennale, “10000 Lives.”
“Gustav Metzger: Historic Photographs” is curated by Massimiliano Gioni, Associate Director and Director of Exhibitions.