Art Strike is a concept of institutional critique associated with Gustav Metzger, in which artists are called to suspend all artistic production, sale, and exhibition for a defined period. Metzger proposed in 1974, in the catalogue for the exhibition "Art into Society / Society into Art," that all art activity be stopped for three years, from 1977 to 1980. The aim was not simply a symbolic refusal, but an attempt to disrupt the art world as a functioning machine by withdrawing artistic labor from its economic and institutional circuits.
The logic of the Art Strike is rooted in the claim that art is used by the state as a "cosmetic cloak," helping conceal social conditions rather than confronting them. By halting production, artists would undermine the system formed by galleries, museums, and specialist journals. The strike therefore operates as a critique of the institutionalization of art and of the economic structures that sustain it. The suspension of making should be redirected toward self-education: time should be devoted to reflection on historical and social issues instead of artistic output.
The sources also frame Art Strike as one of Metzger’s most radical actions, linked to resistance against the overheating art market and to withdrawal from the economic system. It is best understood as a political and institutional tactic rather than a medium-specific artistic style.