Landscapes
John Berger on Art
Published on 8. November 2016
Book
Hardback
272 pages
978-1-78478-584-0 (ISBN)
Description
As leading radical writer on art John Berger celebrates his ninetieth year, he brings a lifetime's engagement with the ideas, artists, and thinkers that have shaped his thinking: Walter Benjamin, Rosa Luxemburg and Bertolt Brecht among them. In Landscapes Berger allows us to see the evolution of his own way of seeing. He explores the relationship between creativity and politics and the revolutionary potential of art through a series of different forms.
As always, in this book, Berger pushes at the limits of art writing, demonstrating beautifully how his painter's eyes lead him to refer to himself only as a storyteller. A landscape is, to John Berger, like a portrait, an animating, liberating metaphor rather than a rigid definition. It's a term, too, that reminds us that there is more here than simply the backdrop or 'by-work' of a portrait. Landscapes offers a tour of the history of art, but not as you know it.
Landscapes brings together Berger's most penetrating insights into how we may engage with both art and the artist in society.
As always, in this book, Berger pushes at the limits of art writing, demonstrating beautifully how his painter's eyes lead him to refer to himself only as a storyteller. A landscape is, to John Berger, like a portrait, an animating, liberating metaphor rather than a rigid definition. It's a term, too, that reminds us that there is more here than simply the backdrop or 'by-work' of a portrait. Landscapes offers a tour of the history of art, but not as you know it.
Landscapes brings together Berger's most penetrating insights into how we may engage with both art and the artist in society.
Reviews / Votes
Berger is a masterful observer, a trait that lends his writing a profound element of artistry: these essays read like sketched studies of an as-yet-painted masterwork . these worldly essays are timeless, inspiring works of critical observation. * Kirkus * John Berger teaches us how to think, how to feel how to stare at things until we see what we thought wasn't there. But above all, he teaches us how to love in the face of adversity. He is a master. -- Arundhati Roy, author of The God of Small Things I admire and love John Berger's books ... Not since Lawrence has there been a writer who offers such attentiveness to the sensual world with responsiveness to the imperatives of conscience. He is a wonderful artist and thinker. -- Susan Sontag One of the most influential intellectuals of our time. -- Sean O'Hagan * Observer * Berger is a writer one demands to know more about ... an intriguing and powerful mind and talent * New York Times * Rich, with a broad, pluralistic approach and collaborative ethos * Art Newspaper * Essential ... reminds us that all good writing comes only from good (that is, patient, attentive, loving) looking. -- Andrew Marr * New Statesman * The second collection of Berger's art writing judiciously edited by Tom Overton -- John Douglas Millar * Frieze * Life has more light and colour after an encounter with Berger * Art Newspaper * Essential reading not just for our political moment but outside it. He was a monument, a world of his own; at the same time, his thinking and his art-which are the same thing-address themselves at once to the past, the present, and the future. * n+1 *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 156 mm
Weight
536 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78478-584-0 (9781784785840)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
New editions
Book
11/2018
Verso Books
€36.08
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Additional editions
Person
Storyteller, novelist, essayist, screenwriter, dramatist and critic, John Berger is one of the most internationally influential writers of the last fifty years. His many books include Ways of Seeing, the fiction trilogy Into Their Labours, Here Is Where We Meet, the Booker Prize winning novel G, Hold Everything Dear, the Man Booker-long-listed From A to X and A Seventh Man.
Tom Overton catalogued John Berger's archive at the British Library. He has curated exhibitions at King's Cultural Institute, Somerset House and the Whitechapel Gallery, and his writing has been published by the LRB blog, New Statesman, Apollo, White Review, Various Small Fires, Tate, the British Council and others.
Tom Overton catalogued John Berger's archive at the British Library. He has curated exhibitions at King's Cultural Institute, Somerset House and the Whitechapel Gallery, and his writing has been published by the LRB blog, New Statesman, Apollo, White Review, Various Small Fires, Tate, the British Council and others.