Essential John Berger – serie

Goya's Last Portrait presents the artist struggling to comprehend the relationship between his life and his work. Having painted humanity at its most violent and depraved amid the horrors of war, and also depicted the vibrancy of aristocratic life, Goya faces an overwhelming question: Has he changed the world or merely caught its reflection?The Question of Geography is set in Magadan, a town in the Soviet far east, where former political prisoners, known as 'Zeks', are forced to live after serving their sentences. The play examines exile, political repression, and the psychological legacy of incarceration.These two plays, the result of a collaboration between John Berger and the actress and writer Nella Bielski, are here brought together for the first time as part of the Essential John Berger Series.

John Berger explores the life and work of Ernst Neizvestny, who, after clashing with Khrushchev, was excluded from the ranks of officially approved Soviet artists. Abandoned to obscurity, Neizvestny laboured to realize a monumental and very public vision of art. Exiled to the United States, he finally found recognition, returning to his homeland with the fall of the Berlin Wall.Berger's account illuminates the very meaning of revolutionary art. In his struggle against official orthodoxy - which brought him into face-to-face conflict with Khrushchev himself - Neizvestny was fight-ing not for a merely personal or aesthetic vision, but for recognition of the social role of art. His sculptures earn a place in the world by reflecting the courage of a whole people, commemorating, in an age of mass suffering, the resistance and endurance of millions.

The seventeenth-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza (a.k.a. Bento) spent the most intense years of his short life writing. He also carried with him a sketchbook. After his sudden death, his friends rescued letters, manuscripts, notes-but no drawings.For years, without knowing what its pages might hold, John Berger has imagined finding Bento's sketchbook, wanting to see the drawings alongside his surviving words. When one day a friend gave him a beautiful virgin sketchbook, Berger said, 'This is Bento's!' and he began to draw, taking inspiration from the philosopher's vision.In this beautifully illustrated book, Berger uses the imaginative space opened up in this experiment to explore politics, storytelling, Spinoza's life and times, and the process of drawing itself.

In Permanent Red, John Berger argues that the contemporary artist should strive for a realism that aims for hope, to transform the world. Surveying the work of historical artists as well as that of near contemporaries such as Picasso, Léger and Matisse, he explores the role of the artist, dividing these figures into those that struggle, those that fail, and the true masters. He explains why we should study the work of the past: in order to understand the present and to rethink the future.First published in 1960, Permanent Red established John Berger as a firebrand critic willing to broadcast controversial opinions on some of the most important British artists of the day, including Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth.

The seventeenth-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza-also known as Benedict or Bento de Spinoza-spent the most intense years of his short life writing. He also carried with him a sketchbook. After his sudden death, his friends rescued letters, manuscripts, notes-but no drawings. For years, without knowing what its pages might hold, John Berger has imagined finding Bento''s sketchbook, wanting to see the drawings alongside his surviving words. When one day a friend gave him a beautiful virgin sketchbook, Berger said, "This is Bento''s!" and he began to draw, taking his inspiration from the philosopher''s vision. In this illustrated color book John Berger uses the imaginative space he creates to explore the process of drawing, politics, storytelling and Spinoza''s life and times.

From the War on Terror to resistance in Ramallah and traumatic dislocation in the Middle East, Berger explores the uses of art as an instrument of political resistance. Visceral and passionate, Hold Everything Dear is a profound meditation on the far extremes of human behaviour, and the underlying despair. Looking at Afghanistan, Palestine, and Iraq, he makes an impassioned attack on the poverty and loss of freedom at the heart of such unnecessary suffering. These essays offer reflections on the political at the core of artistic expression and even at the center of human existence itself.

In this brilliant collection of diverse works-essays, short stories, poems, translations-which spans a lifetime''s engagement with art, John Berger reveals how he came to his own unique way of seeing. He challenges readers to rethink their every assumption about the role of creativity in our lives. Paying homage to the writers and thinkers who influenced him, he pushes at the limits of art writing, demonstrating beautifully how his artist''s eye makes him a storyteller, rather than a critic. His expansive perspective takes in artistic movements and individual artists-from the Renaissance to the present-while never neglecting the social and political context of their creation. Landscapes-alongside Portraits-completes a tour through the history of art that will be an intellectual benchmark for many years to come.

In the dusty, ramshackle town of Suse lives A'ida. Her insurgent husband Xavier has been imprisoned. Resolute, sensuous and tender, A'ida's letters to the man she loves tell of daily events in the town, and of its motley collection of inhabitants whose lives flow through hers. But the town is under threat, and as a faceless power inexorably encroaches from outside, so the smallest details and acts of humanity assume for A'ida a life-affirming significance, acts of resistance against the forces that might otherwise extinguish them.

First published in 1975, this finely wrought investigation remains as urgent as ever, presenting the life of those who have travelled to live and work in Europe. Art critic, novelist, and artist John Berger brings humanity and a voice to those silenced in the political debate about who does and doesn't belong.Why does the Western world look to migrant labourers to perform the most menial tasks? What compels people to leave their homes and accept this humiliating situation? In A Seventh Man, Berger and Jean Mohr come to grips with what it is to be a migrant worker - the material circumstances and the inner experience - and, in doing so, reveal how the migrant is not so much on the margins of modern life but at its centre.

A powerfully unsettling, mordantly witty story about the pitfalls of free will. In the course of a day, the ageing owner of an employment agency is propelled into a fantasy world through his romantic yearnings and inarticulate dreams, seeking an illusory freedom from the bonds of responsibility.

From the ' War on Terror' to resistance in Ramallah and traumatic dislocation in the Middle East, Berger explores the uses of art as an instrument of political resistance. Visceral and passionate, Hold Everything Dear is a profound meditation on the far extremes of human behaviour, and the underlying despair. Looking at Afghanistan, Palestine and Iraq, he makes an impassioned attack on the poverty and loss of freedom at the heart of such unnecessary suffering.These essays offer reflections on the political at the core of artistic expression and at the center of human existence itself.

In Permanent Red, John Berger argues that the contemporary artist should strive for a realism that aims for hope, to transform the world. Surveying the work of historical artists as well as that of near contemporaries such as Picasso, L�ger and Matisse, he explores the role of the artist, dividing these figures into those that struggle, those that fail, and the true masters. He explains why we should study the work of the past: in order to understand the present and to rethink the future.First published in 1960, Permanent Red established John Berger as a firebrand critic willing to broadcast controversial opinions on some of the most important British artists of the day, including Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth.

First published in 1975, this finely wrought investigation remains as urgent as ever, presenting the life of those who have travelled to live and work in Europe. Art critic, novelist, and artist John Berger brings humanity and a voice to those silenced in the political debate about who does and doesn't belong.Why does the Western world look to migrant labourers to perform the most menial tasks? What compels people to leave their homes and accept this humiliating situation? In A Seventh Man, Berger and Jean Mohr come to grips with what it is to be a migrant worker - the material circumstances and the inner experience - and, in doing so, reveal how the migrant is not so much on the margins of modern life but at its centre.

John Berger explores the life and work of Ernst Neizvestny, who, after clashing with Khrushchev, was excluded from the ranks of officially approved Soviet artists. Abandoned to obscurity, Neizvestny laboured to realize a monumental and very public vision of art. Exiled to the United States, he finally found recognition, returning to his homeland with the fall of the Berlin Wall.Berger's account illuminates the very meaning of revolutionary art. In his struggle against official orthodoxy - which brought him into face-to-face conflict with Khrushchev himself - Neizvestny was fight-ing not for a merely personal or aesthetic vision, but for recognition of the social role of art. His sculptures earn a place in the world by reflecting the courage of a whole people, commemorating, in an age of mass suffering, the resistance and endurance of millions.

The Moment of Cubism is one of John Berger's most important collections of art criticism. Whether considering Vermeer in his studio, Poussin's poignant meditation on death, or the complexities of Rodin's sculpture, Berger draws together the threads that bind individual artists to their social and political context. Here Berger argues that Cubism was a moment rather than a movement, one that came and went without the consent of its key figures - Picasso and Braque above all. He makes a case for Cubism's revolutionary influence. As always, Berger helps us see the world in new ways.

The Moment of Cubism is one of John Berger's most important collections of art criticism. Whether considering Vermeer in his studio, Poussin's poignant meditation on death, or the complexities of Rodin's sculpture, Berger draws together the threads that bind individual artists to their social and political context. Here Berger argues that Cubism was a moment rather than a movement, one that came and went without the consent of its key figures - Picasso and Braque above all. He makes a case for Cubism's revolutionary influence. As always, Berger helps us see the world in new ways.

In The Sense of Sight, John Berger considers the peculiar and complex practice of attentive observation. Ranging through subjects as distant from each other as the Renaissance from Hiroshima, encountering artists such as Goya, Dürer, and Van Gogh, Berger explores the deeply political nature of our engagement with the visual world. Told through interrelated but wide-ranging essays, The Sense of Sight is a personal and cultural reflection on the power art has over our feelings and perceptions. Berger shows how art teaches us to see everything with new eyes.

Beginning each essay with an image, Keeping a Rendezvous examines the nature of the artistic encounter. Berger delves into questions of political struggle, the utility of hope, our relationship to images, and the role of art in our lives. By communing with the artists, revolutionaries and thinkers of the past, he shows how looking at art places us in a dialogue with history.In vivid, tender fragments, the book explores a range of artistic and political themes, including the miners' strike, the world of J. M. W. Turner, the existential nature of shovelling manure in the countryside, the appealing spontaneity of cinema, and much more. Above all, Keeping a Rendezvous chronicles the relationship between looking and memory, offering us a window into Berger's courageous imagination. In an era where everything around us begs for attention, these eloquent and insightful essays teach us how to look with intention.

Exiled in London, the Hungarian artist Janos Lavin disappears one day, into thin air. His journal offers his friend John the only clues to where he has gone, and why. John Berger's first novel is a passionate exploration of the artistic process, and a gripping detective story.

Goya's Last Portrait presents the artist struggling to comprehend the relationship between his life and his work. Having painted humanity at its most violent and depraved amid the horrors of war, and also depicted the vibrancy of aristocratic life, Goya faces an overwhelming question: Has he changed the world or merely caught its reflection?The Question of Geography is set in Magadan, a town in the Soviet far east, where former political prisoners, known as 'Zeks', are forced to live after serving their sentences. The play examines exile, political repression, and the psychological legacy of incarceration.These two plays, the result of a collaboration between John Berger and the actress and writer Nella Bielski, are here brought together for the first time as part of the Essential John Berger Series.

From A to X is a powerful exploration of how humanity affirms its highest values through struggle. John Berger presents a community which, besieged by economic and military oppression, finds transcendent hope in the pain, fragility, vulnerability and sorrow of daily existence.

John Berger, storyteller, critic and political writer, brings us this tender and bittersweet novel of a man's dreams of freedom and romance. In his sixty-third year, quite unexpectedly, William Corker, the genteel proprietor of a London employment agency, moves out of the house he has shared with his overbearing sister for most of his life. In this poignant tale of a late-life awakening, Berger creates a character of astonishing depth and liveliness - a man whose fantasies and ambitions are at once splendid and tragic.