Gustav Metzger: "We Must Become Idealists or Die"

Gustav Metzger, the art world’s mischievous 89-year-old troublemaker, has been making radical, politically charged work for almost seven decades. When he was arrested and jailed for civil disobedience against nuclear weapons in 1961 alongside Bertrand Russell, he famously told the judge, “I have no other choice than to assert my right to live”. It’s a statement that might define his entire life.

Metzger hasn’t looked back since he fixed a collection of found cardboard…