Gustav Metzger
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Gustav Metzger was born to Polish-Jewish parents in Nuremberg, Germany in 1926 and came to Britain as a refugee under the auspices of the Refugee Children movement.
He has been stateless since the 1940s.
He is known as the leading exponent of Auto-Destructive Art and part of the Fluxus movement of the 1960s.
He was also an active member of CND and attended their early rocket base campaigns of direct action and occupation.
In 1959 he published the first auto-destructive manifesto Auto-Destructive Art. This was given as a lecture to the Architecture Association in 1964, which was taken over by students as an artistic 'Happening'.
In 1961, he participated in the Festival of Misfits with the Fluxus group, in Gallery One, London. He exhibited the front page of the Daily Mirror covering the Vietnam War. His contribution was rejected by the other participants.
Since then he has continued to make challenging art works around the world. He currently lives and works in East London.