Ben Uri company logo
Ben Uri
Skip to main content
  • Menu
  • Homepage
  • About Ben Uri
  • What's on
  • Visit Us
  • Exhibitions
  • Collections
  • Research Unit - resources
  • BU TV
  • Podcasts
  • Shop
  • Kids Programme
  • Arts and Mental Health
  • Support Us
  • Contact Us
  • Charity art and book sale
Facebook, opens in a new tab.
Youtube, opens in a new tab.
Instagram, opens in a new tab.
Twitter-x, opens in a new tab.
LinkedIn, opens in a new tab.
Send an email
Cart
0 items £
Checkout

Item added to cart

View cart & checkout
Continue shopping
Facebook, opens in a new tab.
Youtube, opens in a new tab.
Instagram, opens in a new tab.
Twitter-x, opens in a new tab.
LinkedIn, opens in a new tab.
Send an email
Menu
Becoming Gustav Metzger
Uncovering The Early Years, 1945-59

Becoming Gustav Metzger: Uncovering The Early Years, 1945-59

Forthcoming exhibition
  • Overview
  • Works
  • Publications
  • Events
  • Videos
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Gustav Metzger Table, 1956 Oil on canvas 30 x 25cm. The Gustav Metzger Foundation

In 1953, shortly after organising the Borough Bottega exhibition at the Berkeley Galleries in London, Metzger resigned from the group, leading Bomberg to break off relations in anger. For three years Metzger did not paint. Table is one of a series of approximately 15 oil paintings and a greater number of drawings, often in coloured chalks, made in 1956 while Metzger was living in Kings Lynn, Norfolk, which represent his return to art making. The series takes as its subject a three-legged occasional table he had bought at auction. As with all of his paintings after 1956, rather than using a brush, Metzger applied the paint with a palette knife and with his fingers, a departure from the work he produced under Bomberg.

Although at first seen as a simple still life, Table resembles the mushroom cloud resulting from the explosion of an atomic bomb, the series coinciding with the artist’s increasing involvement with the Kings Lynn Committee for Nuclear Disarmament, as well as his participation in the Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War. During the period in which the Table was made, Metzger realised that his activities as an artist and as a revolutionary activist might intersect. He also came to understand that such a position could inform the development of his work, both aesthetically and ethically, in ways that remained true to the principles of socially engaged art that he had learnt from Bomberg.

Share
  • Facebook
  • X
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Email
Previous
|
Next
20 
of  38
Back to exhibition Overview
Back to exhibitions

Be the first to know – Sign Up

Sign up

* denotes required fields

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. If you are not happy with this, you can opt-out below. 

 

Read More

VISIT US

108a Boundary Road, St John’s Wood, London, NW8 0RH

Now open Wednesday to Friday 10 am - 5.30 pm

Please check the dates on What's on.

admin@benuri.org

 

 

Homepage

What’s On

About

Contact

Support

Exhibitions

Collections

Research Unit

Essays / Catalogues

Loans 

BU TV

Podcasts

Health

Kids

Press

Facebook, opens in a new tab.
Instagram, opens in a new tab.
Twitter-x, opens in a new tab.
Youtube, opens in a new tab.
Pinterest, opens in a new tab.
LinkedIn, opens in a new tab.
Vimeo, opens in a new tab.
Artsy, opens in a new tab.
Send an email
Privacy Policy
Accessibility Policy
Manage cookies
Copyright © 2025 Ben Uri
Site by Artlogic

We use cookies to make our website work more efficiently, to provide you with more personalised services or advertising, and to analyse traffic on our website. For more information please read our cookies policy. If you don't agree to the use of our cookies, the quality of your experience of our website may be lessened.

Manage cookies
Accept

Cookie preferences

Check the boxes for the cookie categories you allow our site to use

Cookie options
Required for the website to function and cannot be disabled.
Improve your experience on the website by storing choices you make about how it should function.
Allow us to collect anonymous usage data in order to improve the experience on our website.
Allow us to identify our visitors so that we can offer personalised, targeted marketing.
Save preferences
Close

Be the first to know – Sign Up

Subscribe to our newsletter and be the first to know about everything new at Ben Uri, including the constantly evolving and expansive online content across our exhibitions, collection and research.

 

We value and respect your privacy. Your personal data will be kept private and processed securely, according to our Privacy Policy. If you change your mind anytime, you can unsubscribe directly when receiving a mail from us (the link will be at the bottom of the email) or contact us.

Sign up

* denotes required fields

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. If you are not happy with this, you can opt-out below. 

 

Read More


EnglishFrenchGermanItalianPortugueseRussianSpanish