Gustav Metzger at the Merzbarn: An exhibition of works by Gustav Metzger (1926-2017) at the site of Kurt Schwitters’ last great (unfinished) work. 9 October - 14 November 2021

Although a generation apart, both artists came to the UK as refugees from Nazi Germany; Schwitters had just turned 53 when he arrived in 1940; Metzger came on the Kindertransport in 1939, aged 13. Both their lives and work were profoundly impacted by the experience of exile, crisis and loss, and both were hugely influential in shaping the course of post-war British art.

Schwitters spent his last years in the Lake District, where he began to create what he regarded as his most important work – the Merzbarn. Although he struggled with poverty and illness during this time, it was an intensely productive period; over the course of less than 3 years he created over 540 works, consolidating and refining innovative modes of working and key themes which included a deep-rooted engagement with nature as part of a holistic ‘Merz’ weltanschauung – world view.

Gustav Metzger’s life and art reflected an equally rigorous set of artistic and ethical principles which stemmed from concerns over the (ultimately self-)destructive aspects of humanity’s relationship to the natural world. Like Schwitters, whom he admired greatly, Metzger worked across disciplines, developed hybrid artforms and deployed chance or natural processes alongside the latest technology as part of an expansive, experimental envisioning of the role of art and artists in society.

This exhibition highlighted specific confluences between the material and aesthetic sensibilities of Gustav Metzger and Kurt Schwitters in order to open up the rich and largely unexplored common ground between the two artists and their pioneering artistic practices.

The exhibition was curated by Dr Lizzie Fisher, Leverhulme Research Fellow, Northumbria University, and supported by the Gustav Metzger Foundation, Littoral Trust and Westmorland Arts Trust.