Pioneers in art and science : Metzger.

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 work and the culture of our time. From Freud to Vermeer, from Nazi design to the importance of drawing and a far-reaching discussion of auto-destructive art, Gustav 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. Metzger witnessed the rise of Nazism as a small child in Nurnberg 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, the anti-war protest group. He convened the now legendary Destruction in Art Symposium in 196, and proposed the first Art Strike in 1974.