Gustav Metzger

The artist Gustav Metzger (1926 – 2017) was born in Nuremberg, Germany, the son of Orthodox Jews of Polish descent, and came to Britain on the Kindertransport. He was a very early member of CAS and the first editor of CAS’s bulletin PAGE, published from April 1969 and overseen by him until 1972. Metzger established an association for CAS with the avant-garde. His manifestos (from 1959) are among the first references in Britain to the use of computers as possible artistic materials and techniques. Over more than six decades of artistic endeavour and social action he made pertinent, often critical, observations of the role of the artist in a technological age. Several of his works including “Null Object: Gustav Metzger thinks about nothing” (2012) were produced in conjunction with CAS. His work is in the collection of Tate, the Generali Foundation, and elsewhere.

Biography by Catherine Mason.