Gustav Metzger, pioneer of auto-destructive art, dies at 90 in London

Gustav Metzger, the artist known for his auto-destructive art manifesto and association with Fluxus, died at his home in London. Born in Nuremberg in 1926 to a Polish Jewish family, he fled to Britain in 1939 to escape the Holocaust, though his parents perished. He studied art in Cambridge, London, Antwerp, and Oxford. By the late 1950s, he was deeply involved in anti-capitalist movements and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. In 1959, he wrote the manifesto for auto-destructive art, which he described as a desperate last-minute weapon, subversive, and an attack on the capitalist system and art market. His work was shown at the ICA London in 1962 as part of Fluxus, and later at Tate Britain (2004) and the Generali Foundation Vienna (2005). The largest retrospective was at the Serpentine Gallery in 2009, featuring "Flailing Trees," 15 upturned willows embedded in concrete symbolizing a world overturned by global warming.