Portraits, by John Berger
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Portraits, by John Berger
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A major new book from one of the world’s leading writers and art criticsJohn Berger, one of the world’s most celebrated art writers, takes us through centuries of drawing and painting, revealing his lifelong fascination with a diverse cast of artists. In Portraits, Berger grounds the artists in their historical milieu in revolutionary ways, whether enlarging on the prehistoric paintings of the Chauvet caves or Cy Twombly’s linguistic and pictorial play. In penetrating and singular prose, Berger presents entirely new ways of thinking about artists both canonized and obscure, from Rembrandt to Henry Moore, Jackson Pollock to Picasso. Throughout, Berger maintains the essential connection between politics, art and the wider study of culture. The result is an illuminating walk through many centuries of visual culture, from one of the contemporary world’s most incisive critical voices.
Portraits, by John Berger- Amazon Sales Rank: #185943 in Books
- Published on: 2015-11-24
- Released on: 2015-11-24
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.50" h x 1.90" w x 6.30" l, 1.25 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 544 pages
Review “Editors’ Choice” —New York Times“John Berger teaches us how to think, how to feel, how to stare at things till 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 “A volume whose breadth and depth bring it close to a definitive self-portrait of one of Britain’s most original thinkers.” —Financial Times “Shows the 88-year-old British art critic at his bristling best.”—Wall Street Journal “Unruly attentiveness animates … a lifetime’s engagement with artists like Rembrandt, Goya, Henry Moore and Francis Bacon … Ingenious, jargon-free and direct … Berger is a formidable stylist.” —Alexi Worth, New York Times “Perhaps the greatest living writer on art … reminds us just how insufficient most art commentary is these days … an indispensible guide to understanding art from cave painting to today’s experimenters.”—Spectator (Art Books of the Year 2015) “A near exhaustive selection of the ever astute writer’s ‘responses’ to various artists and works, chronologically organised from early cave paintings through to the Palestinian artist Randa Mdah.”—Independent (Books of the Year 2015) “In the writings of John Berger we find a passion for art itself, for the created thing, that is everywhere tempered by an awareness of the social and political world, which too many theorists, whatever their special pleadings, simply ignore.” —Mark Kingwell, Harper’s “Berger’s art criticism transcends its genre to become a very rare thing—literature.” —New Republic “A rich and loving exploration of art history, at once intellectually acute and deeply personal … vital and uncommonly engaging proof of concept for ideas that Berger has long espoused.” —Slate “Berger has always been a writer who understands that art does not begin and end with the canvas—instead, art (and great art writing) should stay with us as a communion between the overlapping titles we assign as portraits: wife, person, genius, artist. These titles, when carefully assigned, could be limiting, but in Berger’s expert hands, they are just the beginning.” —Haley Mlotek, National Post “John Berger is always illuminating and his latest book doesn’t disappoint.” —Scotsman “In this extraordinary new book, John Berger embarks on a process of re-discovery and re-figuring of history through the visual narratives given to us by portraiture. Berger’s ability for storytelling is both incisive and intriguing. He is one of the greatest writers of our time.”—Hans Ulrich Obrist, author of Ways of Curating “[Berger] long ago attained a position unrivalled among English writers or intellectuals of his generation; he seems to stand for a vanished era of critical and political seriousness … All that seems worth preservng and worth celebrating in a long and varied but essential volume like Portraits.”—Brian Dillon, Literary Review “Regardless of the era he studies or the decade in which he writes, his lyrical prose always ultimately serves a fervent political concern … Berger’s writing is fearless, winnowing down canonized artists to their essential political bones.” —Brooklyn Rail “This insistence upon unearthing for the present viewer the hidden labor of the artist, when coupled with his own technical knowledge of painterly art, delivers Berger’s essays from the tedium of much art criticism.” —Robert Minto, Open Letters Monthly
About the Author 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–longlisted From A to X; and A Seventh Man. Tom Overton catalogued John Berger’s archive at the British Library as part of an Arts and Humanities Research Council–funded Collaborative Doctoral Award with King’s College London, and edited this book as a Henry Moore Institute Research Fellow and a Fellow of the Centre for Life-Writing Research at KCL. He has curated exhibitions at King’s Cultural Institute, Somerset House and the Whitechapel Gallery, and his writing has been published by the New Statesman, Apollo, White Review, Various Small Fires, Tate, the British Council and others.
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful. A very personal exploration of creativity and human expression By Kathy Cunningham PORTRAITS is admittedly a dense piece of writing. In over five hundred pages, art critic and storyteller John Berger takes us through thousands of years of art history, closely examining such diverse talents as ancient cave painters, classic greats, and modern masters. Berger covers the expected artists (Rembrandt, Cezanne, Monet, van Gogh, and Picasso), as well as many I had never heard of (Basquiat, Broughton, Hambling, and Noel). In all, there are 74 artists explored in this book, and Berger is intimately connected with every one of them. This isn’t so much a volume of art history as it is a journey into Berger’s soul as he waxes poetic about color, texture, and the many ways art communicates. As Tom Overton writes in the introduction, “this book constructs a history of art that is not about distinction, but about connection; not just between artists, but between artists and us.”I was surprised at how much of this book reads as a series of stories, stories about Berger’s own life as well as the world of the artists he explores. And Berger’s view of art and artists is uniquely his own. Of ancient cave paintings in Chauvet, he writes, “Deep in the cave, which meant deep in the earth, there was everything: wind, water, fire, faraway places, the dead, thunder, pain, paths, animals, light, the unborn … they were there in the rock to be called to.” Of Goya, he writes, “Goya’s genius as a graphic artist was that of a commentator . . . he was much more interested in events than states of mind.” Of Cezanne’s use of the color black, he writes, “It’s a black like no other in painting.” And of Pollack, he writes: “The suicide of an art is a strange idea.” These are enigmatic comments that Berger explores through intense analysis, personal vignettes, and clever anecdotes. Reading this, I felt I knew Berger – and I felt I knew the artists he was revealing to us.My only complaint is the quality of the pictures in this book. All of the paintings are reproduced in black-and-white, which I at first assumed was because the book I was reading was an Advanced Reader’s Copy (ARCs are presented as “uncorrected proofs,” which seldom include color illustrations). But Berger is clear in his preface that the decision to use black-and-white illustrations was intentional. As he puts it, “This is because glossy colour reproductions in the consumerist world of today tend to reduce what they show to items in a luxury brochure for millionaires. Whereas black and white reproductions are simple memoranda.” The illustrations in this book are really superfluous, since they are difficult to see and do little to compliment Berger’s expert prose. It’s easy enough to go online to take a closer look at the works Berger references, but I wonder why the black-and-white illustrations are included at all.But for readers interested in art, art history, or the stories behind the creative spirit, PORTRAITS is a wonderful book. Just be aware that this is not one of those coffee table art books with gorgeous glossy color prints – it’s not “a luxury brochure for millionaires.” No, it’s an intellectual, very personal, and often very spiritual look at creativity and human expression. I highly recommend it.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful. Not what I thought it would be... By Bluerose's Heart When I first got this book, I was disappointed that my ARC only had the artworks as small(ish) black and white pictures. It turns out that the final copy will also only have black and white pictures. It was a purposeful decision, which is explained in the preface."The illustrations in this book are all in black and white. This is because glossy colour reproductions in the consumerist world of today tend to reduce what they show to items in a luxury brochure for millionaires. Whereas black and white reproductions are simple memoranda." (John Berger, ARC preface)I'm sure this was a cheaper option for printing, but I still wanted the artwork shown in color to admire, as the artist created it. (As much as can be admired considering one isn't looking at the original.)This book is really more about the author, John Berger, and his thoughts about the artists/artworks than about the artists he discusses. It's a personal kind of book, and one that will most likely be appreciated more by fans of Berger than those that don't know him. (I hate to admit I'd never heard of him before picking up this book.)I recently started an art/artist study with my children. While I know many of the most popular artists(Van Gogh, Monet, Caravaggio, Degas, and many others, which are all covered within this book), there are many that I'd never heard of in here. I'm learning WITH my children, and I don't mind admitting I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to art. (We all have to start somewhere, after all.) I thought reading this would give me little facts to help me and my children better connect with the artist and/or artwork. While I DID get plenty of those little facts and there was plenty of interesting things within it, I wouldn't overly recommend this book to someone just trying to learn about artists, in general. I think those more acquainted with the world of art and with Berger will appreciate it more. I thought I was getting more of a coffee table type book to browse through, but that's not what this book is at all.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Elegant, unique book about art and artists throughout history By J. Silva This book is an absolute treasure for art lovers. It isn't an easy read, nor is it the kind of book you sit down and read cover to cover. Rather, it is a book to keep close by, to pick up when you want to be challenged, enlightened, and delighted, all at once, about an artist or group of artists.John Berger is an award-winning novelist who has written about art -- both as a critic and as an essayist-observer -- for many years. The editor, Tom Overton, who studied Berger's work for his doctoral dissertation, has arranged the pieces in the book chronologically by artist, not by the dates Berger wrote them. The result, as Overton says in his introduction, "a history of art that is not about distinction, but about connection; not just between artists, but between artists and us." Berger spent many years painting as well as writing, until he gave up painting (but not drawing, as he pointedly notes in his own brief introduction) to concentrate primarily on writing. His awareness of what it takes to make a work of art informs his writing -- in his essay on Matisse, for example, the reader senses the intensity with which Berger feels Matisse's connection to "pure colour."I've taken to reading a few pieces a week -- in between reading other books and/or working on projects. Each essay, or letter, or piece of criticism, or even transcript from Berger's television series about art, offers a fresh look at an artist I thought I knew. Some of the essays are intensely personal. For example, the fourth essay in the book is a remarkable little story: Berger visits the National Gallery in London on Good Friday, specifically to draw a crucifixion painting by Antonello da Messina. While drawing, he puts his bag on an empty guard's chair, and gets into an unpleasant exchange when the guard returns to reclaim the chair. -- an exchange that leads to Berger being escorted out of the gallery. The piece is a close look at the painting, but also a close look inside the workings of Berger's mind: intent on the art and the drawing, and stubbornly insistent on finishing his sketch.In his piece about Jackson Pollock, Berger writes not just about the famous, groundbreaking drip painter, but also about his wife and painting partner, Lee Krasner, analyzing their different artistic styles as well as their relationship as a couple. It's a completely surprising piece, using a perspective that might feel gossipy in lesser hands.Not all of the Berger pieces in this book are as fascinating and quirky as the two mentioned above. Some are dry and pendantic, some just a tad too self-congratulatory. But all are written elegantly and beautifully, from a unique point of view. I recommend the book highly to anyone who wants to expand their thinking about art and artists throughout history.
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