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John Peter Berger (; 5 November 1926 – 2 January 2017) was an English
art critic An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogu ...
, novelist, painter and poet. His novel '' G.'' won the 1972
Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. ...
, and his essay on art criticism '' Ways of Seeing'', written as an accompaniment to the BBC series of the same name, was influential. He lived in France for over fifty years.


Early life

Berger was born on 5 November 1926 in
Stoke Newington Stoke Newington is an area occupying the north-west part of the London Borough of Hackney in north-east London, England. It is northeast of Charing Cross. The Manor of Stoke Newington gave its name to Stoke Newington the ancient parish. The ...
, London, the first of two children of Miriam and Stanley Berger. His grandfather was from
Trieste Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into pr ...
, Italy,The Books Interview: John Berger
The Books Interview: John Berger
accessdate: 2 January 2017
and his father, Stanley, raised as a non-religious Jew who adopted Catholicism, had been an infantry officer on the Western Front during the First World War and was awarded the
Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC ...
and an OBE. Berger was educated at
St Edward's School, Oxford St Edward's School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school) in Oxford, England. It is known informally as 'Teddies'. Approximately sixty pupils live in each of its thirteen houses. The school is a member of the Rugby G ...
. He served in the
British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurkha ...
during the Second World War from 1944 to 1946. He enrolled at the Chelsea School of Art and the Central School of Art and Design in London.


Career

Berger began his career as a painter and exhibited works at a number of London galleries in the late 1940s. His art has been shown at the Wildenstein, Redfern and Leicester Galleries in London. Berger taught drawing at St Mary's teacher training college. He later became an art critic, publishing many essays and reviews in the ''
New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...
''. His
Marxist humanism Marxist humanism is an international body of thought and political action rooted in an interpretation of the works of Karl Marx. It is an investigation into "what human nature consists of and what sort of society would be most conducive to hum ...
and his strongly stated opinions on
modern art Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophies of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the tradi ...
combined to make him a controversial figure early in his career. As a statement of political commitment, he titled an early collection of essays ''Permanent Red''. Berger was never a formal member of the
Communist Party of Great Britain The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPGB ...
(CPGB): rather he was a close associate of it and its front, the Artists’ International Association (AIA), until the latter disappeared in 1953. He was active in the Geneva Club, a discussion group that appears to have overlapped with British communist circles in the 1950s.


Publishing

In 1958, Berger published his first novel, ''A Painter of Our Time'', which tells the story of the disappearance of Janos Lavin, a fictional exiled Hungarian painter, and his diary's discovery by an art critic friend called John. The work was withdrawn by the publisher under pressure from the
Congress for Cultural Freedom The Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF) was an anti-communist advocacy group founded in 1950. At its height, the CCF was active in thirty-five countries. In 1966 it was revealed that the CIA was instrumental in the establishment and funding of the ...
a month after its publication. His next novels were ''The Foot of Clive'' and ''Corker's Freedom''; both of which presented an urban English life of alienation and melancholy. Berger moved to Quincy in the
Haute-Savoie Haute-Savoie (; Arpitan: ''Savouè d'Amont'' or ''Hiôta-Savouè''; en, Upper Savoy) or '; it, Alta Savoia. is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of Southeastern France, bordering both Switzerland and Italy. Its prefecture is Ann ...
, France, in 1962 due to his distaste for life in Britain. In 1972, the BBC broadcast his four-part television series '' Ways of Seeing'' and published its accompanying text, a book of the same name. The first episode functions as an introduction to the study of images; it was derived in part from
Walter Benjamin Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin (; ; 15 July 1892 – 26 September 1940) was a German Jewish philosopher, cultural critic and essayist. An eclectic thinker, combining elements of German idealism, Romanticism, Western Marxism, and Jewish ...
's essay " The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction". The subsequent episodes concern the image of woman as a sexualized object in Western culture, expressions of property ownership and wealth in European oil painting, and modern advertising. The series, the first of several close collaborations with director
Mike Dibb Mike Dibb (born Wharfedale, Bradford, West Yorkshire, 29 April 1940) is an English documentary filmmaker. In almost half a century of making films mainly for television – on subjects including cinema, literature, art, jazz, sport and popular c ...
, has had a lasting influence, and in particular introduced the concept of the
male gaze In feminist theory, the male gaze is the act of depicting women and the world in the visual arts and in literature from a masculine, heterosexual perspective that presents and represents women as sexual objects for the pleasure of the heteros ...
, as part of his analysis of the treatment of the nude in European painting. It soon became popular among
feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
s, including the British film critic Laura Mulvey, who used it to critique traditional media representations of the female character in cinema. Berger's novel '' G.'', a picaresque romance set in Europe in 1898, won the
James Tait Black Memorial Prize The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. They, along with the Hawthornden Prize, are Britain's oldest literary awards. Based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Uni ...
and the
Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. ...
in 1972. Berger donated half the Booker cash prize to the British Black Panthers, and retained half to support his work on the study on migrant workers that became '' A Seventh Man'', asserting that both endeavors represented aspects of his political struggle. Berger's sociological writings include ''A Fortunate Man: The Story of a Country Doctor'' (1967) and ''A Seventh Man: Migrant Workers in Europe'' (1975). Berger and photographer Jean Mohr, his frequent collaborator, sought to document and understand the experiences of peasants. Their subsequent book, ''Another Way of Telling'', discusses and illustrates their documentary technique and treats the theory of photography through Berger's essays and Mohr's photographs. His studies of individual artists include ''The Success and Failure of
Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
'' (1965), a survey of that modernist's career, and ''Art and Revolution: Ernst Neizvestny, Endurance, and the Role of the Artist in the USSR'' (1969). In the 1970s, Berger collaborated on three films with the Swiss director
Alain Tanner Alain Tanner (6 December 1929 – 11 September 2022) was a Swiss film director. Early years and education Tanner was born in Geneva, and studied economics at the University of Geneva. In 1951, he joined the film club which Claude Goretta had r ...
: He wrote or co-wrote ''La Salamandre'' (1971), ''The Middle of the World'' (1974), and ''
Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000 ''Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000'' (french: Jonas qui aura 25 ans en l'an 2000) is a 1976 Swiss drama film directed by Alain Tanner and written by Tanner and John Berger. The location of the shooting was Geneva. The film follows the lives ...
'' (1976). His major fictional work of the 1980s, the trilogy ''Into Their Labours'' (consisting of the novels '' Pig Earth'', ''Once in Europa'', and ''Lilac and Flag''), treats the European peasant experience from its farming roots to contemporary economic and political displacement and urban poverty. In 1974, Berger co-founded the Writers and Readers Publishing Cooperative Ltd in London with Arnold Wesker, Lisa Appignanesi,
Richard Appignanesi Richard Appignanesi (born December 20, 1940) is a Canadian writer and editor. He was the originating editor of the internationally successful illustrated '' For Beginners'' book series (since 1991 called the '' Introducing...'' series), as well ...
, Chris Searle, Glenn Thompson, Siân Williams, and others. The cooperative was active until the early 1980s. In later essays, Berger wrote about photography, art, politics, and memory. He published in ''The Shape of a Pocket'' a correspondence with
Subcomandante Marcos Rafael Sebastián Guillén Vicente (born 19 June 1957) is a Mexican insurgent, the former military leader and spokesman for the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) in the ongoing Chiapas conflict,Pasztor, S. B. (2004). Marcos, Subcoman ...
, and penned short stories that appeared in '' The Threepenny Review'' and ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
''. His sole volume of poetry is ''Pages of the Wound'', though other volumes, such as the theoretical essays ''And Our Faces, My Heart, Brief as Photos'' contain poetry. His 2007 collection of essays on the uses of art as an instrument of political resistance
Hold Everything Dear
was titled after the poem by Gareth Evans. His later novels include ''To the Wedding'', a love story dealing with the
AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ma ...
crisis, and ''King: A Street Story'', a novel about homelessness and shantytown life told from the perspective of a stray dog. Initially, Berger insisted that his name be kept off the cover and title page of ''King'', wanting the novel to be received on its own merits. Berger's 1980 volume ''About Looking'' includes an influential chapter, "Why Look at Animals?" It is cited by numerous scholars in the interdisciplinary field of
animal studies Animal studies is a recently recognised field in which animals are studied in a variety of cross-disciplinary ways. Scholars who engage in animal studies may be formally trained in a number of diverse fields, including geography, art history, ant ...
. The chapter was later reproduced in a Penguin Great Ideas selection of essays of the same title. Berger's novel ''From A to X'' was long-listed for the 2008 Booker Prize. In ''Bento's Sketchbook'' (2011) Berger combines extracts from
Baruch Spinoza Baruch (de) Spinoza (born Bento de Espinosa; later as an author and a correspondent ''Benedictus de Spinoza'', anglicized to ''Benedict de Spinoza''; 24 November 1632 – 21 February 1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, ...
, sketches, memoir, and observations in a book that contemplates the relationship of materialism to spirituality. According to Berger, what could be seen as a contradiction "is beautifully resolved by Spinoza, who shows that it is not a duality, but in fact an essential unity". The book has been described as "a characteristically ''
sui generis ''Sui generis'' ( , ) is a Latin phrase that means "of its/their own kind", "in a class by itself", therefore "unique". A number of disciplines use the term to refer to unique entities. These include: * Biology, for species that do not fit in ...
'' work combining an engagement with the thought of the 17th-century lens grinder, draughtsman, and philosopher
Baruch Spinoza Baruch (de) Spinoza (born Bento de Espinosa; later as an author and a correspondent ''Benedictus de Spinoza'', anglicized to ''Benedict de Spinoza''; 24 November 1632 – 21 February 1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, ...
, with a study of drawing and a series of semi-autobiographical sketches". Among his last works is ''Confabulations'' (essays, 2016).


Other work

In 1999, Berger voiced both twin brother characters Archie and Albert Crisp in the video game '' Grand Theft Auto: London 1969''. He was a member of the Support Committee of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine.


Personal life

Berger married three times, first to artist and illustrator Patt Marriott in 1949; the marriage was childless and the couple divorced. In the mid-1950s, he married the Russian Anya Bostock (née Anna Sisserman), with whom he had two children, Katya Berger and Jacob Berger; the couple divorced in the mid-1970s. Soon afterwards, he married Beverly Bancroft, with whom he had one child, Yves. Beverly died in 2013. Berger died at his home in Antony, France, on 2 January 2017 at the age of 90.


Legacy

In July 2009 Berger donated his archive of 369 files, nine boxes and one book to the
British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the Briti ...
. The contents include literary manuscripts, drafts, unpublished material and correspondence.


Awards

* 1972
Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. ...
* 1972
James Tait Black Memorial Prize The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. They, along with the Hawthornden Prize, are Britain's oldest literary awards. Based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Uni ...
* 1991 Petrarca-Preis * 2009 Golden PEN Award


Works


Fiction

*''A Painter of Our Time'' (1958) *''The Foot of Clive'' (1962) *''Corker's Freedom'' (1964) *'' G.'' (1972) *''Into Their Labours'' trilogy (1991): '' Pig Earth'' (1979), ''Once in Europa'' (1987), ''Lilac and Flag'' (1990) *'' To the Wedding'' (1995) *''King: A Street Story'' (1999) *'' From A to X'' (2008)


Plays

*''A Question of Geography'' (with Nella Bielski) (1987) *''Les Trois Chaleurs'' (1985) *''Boris'' (1983) *''Goya's Last Portrait'' (with Nella Bielski) (1989)


Screenplays

*''
Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000 ''Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000'' (french: Jonas qui aura 25 ans en l'an 2000) is a 1976 Swiss drama film directed by Alain Tanner and written by Tanner and John Berger. The location of the shooting was Geneva. The film follows the lives ...
'' (with Alain Tanner) (1976) *'' La Salamandre'' (''The Salamander'') (with Alain Tanner) (1971) *'' Le Milieu du monde'' (''The Middle of the World'') (with Alain Tanner) (1974) * ''Play Me Something'' (with Timothy Neat) (1989) * ''Une ville à Chandigarh'' (A City at Chandigarh) (1966)


Poetry

*''Pages of the Wound'' (1994) *''Collected Poems'' (2014)


Other

*''Marcel Frishman'' (with George Besson) (1958) *''Permanent Red'' (1960) (Published in the United States in altered form in 1962 as ''Toward Reality: Essays in Seeing'') *''The Success and Failure of Picasso'' (1965) *''A Fortunate Man'' (with Jean Mohr) (1967) *''Art and Revolution: Ernst Neizvestny And the Role of the Artist in the U.S.S.R'' (1969) *''The Moment of Cubism and Other Essays'' (1969) *''The Look of Things: Selected Essays and Articles'' (1972) *'' Ways of Seeing'' (with Mike Dibb, Sven Blomberg, Chris Fox and Richard Hollis) (1972) *'' A Seventh Man'' (with Jean Mohr) (1975) *''About Looking'' (1980) *''Another Way of Telling'' (with Jean Mohr) (1982) *''And Our Faces, My Heart, Brief as Photos'' (1984) *''The White Bird'' (U.S. title: ''The Sense of Sight'') (1985) *''Keeping a Rendezvous'' (1992) *''The Sense of Sight'' (1993) *''Albrecht Dürer: Watercolours and Drawings'' (1994) *''Titian: Nymph and Shepherd'' (with Katya Berger) (1996) *''Photocopies'' (1996) *''Isabelle: A Story in Shorts'' (with Nella Bielski) (1998) *''At the Edge of the World'' (with Jean Mohr) (1999) *''Selected Essays'' ( Geoff Dyer, ed.) (2001) *''The Shape of a Pocket'' (2001) *''I Send You This Cadmium Red: A Correspondence between John Berger and John Christie'' (with John Christie) (2001) * ''My Beautiful'' (with Marc Trivier) (2004) *''Berger on Drawing'' (2005) *''Here is Where We Meet'' (2005) *''Hold Everything Dear: Dispatches on Survival and Resistance'' (2007; 2nd ed. 2016) *''The Red Tenda of Bologna'' (2007) *''War with No End'' (with
Naomi Klein Naomi A. Klein (born May 8, 1970) is a Canadian author, social activist, and filmmaker known for her political analyses, support of ecofeminism, organized labour, left-wing politics and criticism of corporate globalization, fascism, ecofascism ...
,
Hanif Kureishi Hanif Kureishi (born 5 December 1954) is a British playwright, screenwriter, filmmaker and novelist of South Asian and English descent. In 2008, ''The Times'' included Kureishi in its list of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945. Early l ...
, Arundhati Roy,
Ahdaf Soueif Ahdaf Soueif ( ar, أهداف سويف; born 23 March 1950) is an Egyptian novelist and political and cultural commentator. Early life Soueif was born in Cairo, where she lives, and was educated in Egypt and England. She studied for a PhD in lin ...
, Joe Sacco and Haifa Zangana) (2007) *''Meanwhile'' (2008) *''Why Look at Animals?'' (2009) *''From I to J'' (with Isabel Coixet) (2009) * ''Lying Down to Sleep'' (with Katya Berger) (2010) * ''Railtracks'' (with Anne Michaels) (2011) *''Bento's Sketchbook'' (2011) *''Cataract'' (with Selçuk Demirel) (2012) *''Understanding a Photograph'' ( Geoff Dyer, ed.) (2013)John Berger
''Understanding a Photograph''
Aperture. .
*''Daumier: The Heroism of Modern Life'' (2013) *''Flying Skirts: An Elegy'' (with Yves Berger) (2014) *''Portraits: John Berger on Artists'' ( Tom Overton, ed.) (2015) *''Cuatro horizontes'' (''Four Horizons'') (with Sister Lucia Kuppens, Sister Telchilde Hinkley and John Christie) (2015) *''Lapwing & Fox'' (Conversations between John Berger and John Christie) (2016) *''Confabulations'' (Essays) (2016) *''Landscapes: John Berger on Art'' ( Tom Overton, ed.) (2016) *''John by Jean: Fifty Years of Friendship'' ( Jean Mohr, ed.) (2016) *''A Sparrow's Journey: John Berger Reads Andrey Platonov'' (CD: 44:34 & 81-page book with Robert Chandler and Gareth Evans), London: House Sparrow Press in association with the London Review Bookshop (2016) *''Smoke'' (with Selçuk Demirel) (2017) *''Seeing Through Drawing '' (with John Christie) (2017). The book, published by OBJECTIF, features new texts by and about John Berger plus a catalogue section of images, information and stories from the invited artists in the main exhibition held on 8 July – 26 August 2017 at Mandell's Gallery, Norwich. It contains two previously unpublished sequences of correspondence on art and communications between John Berger and his daughter Katya Berger Andreadakis along with tributes and stories from: Anne Michaels, Yves Berger, Eulàlia Bosch, Geoff Dyer, Gareth Evans, Paul Gordon and Tom Overton. The book also features a compilation of writings on the art and practice of drawing collected together by John Christie, from across John Berger's art criticism, fiction, essays and letters. *''What Time Is It?'' (with Selçuk Demirel) ( Maria Nadotti, ed.) (2019) *''Swimming Pool'' (with Leon Kossoff) (Introduction by Deborah Levy. Postscript by Yves Berger. Berger’s Texts selected by Teresa Pintó. Book design by John Christie) (2020)


Film

*''The Seasons in Quincy: Four Portraits of John Berger'' (2016), directed by
Tilda Swinton Katherine Matilda Swinton (born 5 November 1960) is a British actress. Known for her roles in independent films and blockbusters, she has received various accolades, including an Academy Award and a British Academy Film Award, in addition t ...
, Colin MacCabe, Christopher Roth and Bartek Dziadosz.


Reviews

*Harkness, Allan (1983), ''Berger: A Seventh Man?'', review of ''A Seventh Man'' and ''Another Way of Telling'', in Hearn, Sheila G.(ed.), '' Cencrastus'' No. 12, Spring 1983, pp. 46 & 47,


References


Further reading

* Sperling, Joshua (2018)
A Writer of Our Time: The Life and Work of John Berger
' * Bounds, Philip "Beyond : The Media Criticism of John Berger" in Philip Bounds and Mala Jagmohan (eds), ''Recharting Media Studies'', Peter Lang 2008, * Dyer, Geoff ''Ways of Telling: The Work of John Berger'', . * Dyer, Geoff (Ed.) ''John Berger, Selected Essays'', Bloomsbury. . * Fuller, Peter (1980) ''Seeing Berger. A Revaluation of'' , Writers and Readers. . * Hertel, Ralf and David Malcolm (eds.), ''On John Berger: Telling Stories''. Leiden: Brill, 2015. . * Hochschild, Adam ''Finding the Trapdoor: Essays, Portraits, Travels'' (Syracuse University Press, 1997), "Broad Jumper in the Alps," pp. 50–64. * Krautz, Jochen ''Vom Sinn des Sichtbaren. John Bergers Ästhetik und Ethik als Impuls für die Kunstpädagogik am Beispiel der Fotografie'', Hamburg 2004 (Dr. Kovac) . * Merrifield, Andy ''John Berger'', London: Reaktion Books, 2012. * Papastergiadis, Nikos ''Modernity as exile: The stranger in John Berger's writing'' (Manchester University Press, 1993) * Chandan, Amarjit; Evans, Gareth; Gunaratnam, Yasmin (Eds.) ''The Long White Thread of Words: Poems for John Berger'', Ripon: Smokestack Books, 2016. * Chandan, Amarjit; Gunaratnam, Yasmin (Eds.) ''A Jar of Wild Flowers: Essays in Celebration of John Berger'', London: Zed Books, 2016.


External links


Postscript: John Berger, 1926–2017
Mike Gonzalez in ''International Socialism'' 40 (1988).

by John Berger, ''International Socialism'' 40 (1988).
Verso Books author pageJohn Berger Archive at the British Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Berger, John 1926 births 2017 deaths 20th-century English novelists 20th-century English painters 21st-century English painters 21st-century male artists 20th-century English poets 21st-century English poets 21st-century English male writers Academics of St Mary's University, Twickenham Alumni of the Central School of Art and Design Alumni of Chelsea College of Arts British Army personnel of World War II English art critics English expatriates in France English male novelists English male painters English Marxists English male poets English screenwriters English male screenwriters English people of Italian-Jewish descent Geometry of Fear James Tait Black Memorial Prize recipients Booker Prize winners Marxist humanists Marxist writers Members of the Academy of Arts, Berlin People educated at St Edward's School, Oxford Writers from London