Landscapes: John Berger on Art - Hardcover

John Berger

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1784785849 ISBN 13: 9781784785840

Publisher: Verso, 2016

Synopsis

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. 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.

About this title

Review:

“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

“A volume whose breadth and depth bring it close to a definitive self-portrait of one of Britain’s most original thinkers.” – Financial Times

“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

“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

“Shows the 88-year-old art critic at his bristling best” – Wall Street Journal

“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 Reviews

“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

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-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.

About this edition

• Publisher: Verso
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1784785849
• ISBN 13: 9781784785840
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272
• Editor: Tom Overton