Accompanying a major exhibition at MOMA, this book presents a comprehensive survey of the life and work of Gustav Metzger, founder of Auto-Destructive Art and convenor of the historic Destruction in Art Symposium – DIAS – of 1966. Focusing on a selection of Metzger’s works from the late 1950s to the present day, it includes his liquid crystal light projections and the new historic photographs he has made for the exhibition.

Born into a Polish-Jewish family in Nürnburg in 1926, Metzger came to London as a child refugee in 1939 where he trained as an artist. His early experiences in Nazi Germany fuelled a lifelong preoccupation with social and political injustices in the world. The quest for social change and his opposition to the capitalist system has remained the focus of Metzger’s life and work. His work and actions are illustrated throughout, and his wider influence and contribution to post-war British Art is also examined.