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Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 701 EAN: 9780375713187 ISBN: 0375713182 Label: Vintage Manufacturer: Vintage Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 608 Publication Date: March 11, 2003 Publisher: Vintage Release Date: March 11, 2003 Studio: Vintage Editorial Review: Product Description: The writing career of John Berger–poet, storyteller, playwright, and essayist–has yielded some of the most original and compelling examinations of art and life of the past half century. In this essential volume, Geoff Dyer has brought together a rich selection of many of Berger’s seminal essays. Berger’s insights make it impossible to look at a painting, watch a film, or even visit a zoo in quite the same way again. The vast range of subjects he addresses, the lean beauty of his prose, and the keenness of his anger against injustice move us to view the world with a new lens of awareness. Whether he is discussing the singleminded intensity of Picasso’s Guernica, the parallel violence and alienation in the art of Francis Bacon and Walt Disney, or the enigmatic silence of his own mother, what binds these pieces throughout is the depth and fury of Berger’s passion, challenging us to participate, to protest, and above all, to see. Average Rating:
 Rating: - high level readingI was introduced to Berger's writings by an artist and art department chair. These are high-level reading, not fluffy, essays. I love his up-front, no-nonsense writing style. Berger writes about life and art. His essays are primarily art philosophies and critiques, and even when he writes of his daily life, art is still the point. There are wonderful lessons in his writings, some academic lessons and some life lessons. I find these readings enhance my studio art classes. Rating:  - Art writing of the first orderBerger is a truly great art writer - one from whom you can really feel the love for and fascination with art, the struggle to make sense of the ineffable effects art has had on him, and whose genuine goal seems to be helping the reader (and perhaps himself) understand art better (as opposed to more recent criticism whose raison d'etre seems to be maximizing obfuscation). Berger's gentle, ruminative style is pleasurable but can at times seem a bit wispy, giving him a somehow old-fashioned feel - ... Read More Rating: - Attention must be paid!Most of us, most of the time, are satisfied to be awed, intrigued, excited, even enraptured by art without developing any critical understanding of it. John Berger takes an addional step. A thoughtful critic and an excellent writer, he has been sharing his understanding with readers for more than 40 years. This book collects in one place nearly 600 pages of his essays on painting, architecture, photography, drama, and literature. Berger on Pollock: Imagine a man brought up from birth ... Read More Rating: - John Berger is what politically engaged criticism should look likeThis book is what politically engaged leftist art criticism should look like. This is what American art criticism WOULD look like if we could wrest it away from the academic theory cliques and their exclusionist jargon (in which they, without a hint of irony, frame a discourse of 'inclusion'). A left-wing pirate's treasure chest of golden ideas and silver sentences, this is a book to read, re-read, admire and argue with. Berger is the art critic other critics should learn from. Rating: - IndispensableI happened to pick this book up in a store because I had read one novel of Berger's, Pig Earth, which I thought was very good. I knew he was an art critic, but I never had any particular urge to read art criticism; I didn't think visual art needed a lot of explaining. Just reading the three page essay on Jackson Pollock convinced me that, at least regarding the type of criticism that Berger writes, I was wrong. In a few sentences, he seems to capture the essence of what an artist has accomplished ... Read More |
