- Paperback: 220 pages
- Publisher: Vintage Books; 1st Vintage International Ed edition (1 Aug 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0679737251
- ISBN-13: 978-0679737254
- Product Dimensions: 13.2 x 1.3 x 20.2 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 168,363 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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A critical assessment of Picasso and his work. This book is part biography - the book follows his life and work and childhood in Spain through Guernica to France - and part critical study.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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is now wealthier and more famous than any other artist who has ever lived. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
is now wealthier and more famous than any other artist who has ever lived. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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3 reviews
27 of 30 people found the following review helpful
What's a genius anyway?
9 Feb 2001
Format:Paperback
John Berger is a critic with a real sense of decency: never too high-falutin, smart and responsible. He asks us to see beautiful objects, not in their staid isolation in the museum setting, but in the context of social history. It is obvious that Picasso was a genius. He saw and drew things that evoke wonders and passions. But is that all?
The central essay here is "The Moment of Cubism." Berger paints a general portrait of a distinct era of possibility: artistic and social and political. The explosion of Cubism is but a moment in a larger moment of real revolution. Not just "ways of seeing" but ways of living, thinking, hoping. Berger reminds us that Picasso needed the times (Europe), he also, more specifically needed friends and support. After all, there were two who brought forth cubism; moreover, there were the likes of Cezanne.
Berger asks the question that is overlooked in the constant reverence of Picasso's potency (echoing Benjamin Buchloh on the "ciphers of regression"): was Picasso genius throughout his career or was that moment (historical and aesthetic) the real genius?
(For more on Berger, read his two inspired novels: "G." and "To the Wedding.")
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Good read, unusual points of view
6 Mar 2011
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
John Berger is not your mainstream art critic. He is an independent thinker and is nobody's fool. You may find his Marxist rhetoric somewhat dated and his references to bourgeois class even silly, but his style is strong, he's informed intellectual with whom you may disagree but will respect and, if you opened, will learn few things.
Berger attributes Picasso failure (assuming you know where Picasso had succeeded) to his selection of inferior subject matter. Being of Marxist's creed, Berger would prefer for Picasso to select his subjects from a set of social problems which will connect him to a 'working class', a nation, or a movement, rather than be confined to a personal expressions. He's OK with his blue-pink period of 'being a social outcast' and considers his cubist period as his best. He also finds the merit in his work of post-war years and sees his work in decline starting from fifties. His accusations are not completely groundless but are disputable. His astute criticism of cubism, its connection with natural sciences, quantum mechanics, its simultaneity of multiple views as a way or organizing information, these are the most interesting passages I enjoyed.
I like Berger's dissenting views as a stimuli for discussion. He will not bow to the overwhelming Picasso admiration and is not afraid to provides critique that alone drives our knowledge forward. I found his book interesting and useful.
Berger attributes Picasso failure (assuming you know where Picasso had succeeded) to his selection of inferior subject matter. Being of Marxist's creed, Berger would prefer for Picasso to select his subjects from a set of social problems which will connect him to a 'working class', a nation, or a movement, rather than be confined to a personal expressions. He's OK with his blue-pink period of 'being a social outcast' and considers his cubist period as his best. He also finds the merit in his work of post-war years and sees his work in decline starting from fifties. His accusations are not completely groundless but are disputable. His astute criticism of cubism, its connection with natural sciences, quantum mechanics, its simultaneity of multiple views as a way or organizing information, these are the most interesting passages I enjoyed.
I like Berger's dissenting views as a stimuli for discussion. He will not bow to the overwhelming Picasso admiration and is not afraid to provides critique that alone drives our knowledge forward. I found his book interesting and useful.
One of the best Picasso books
24 Mar 2012
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book offers a different view of Picasso's life and work. Some of John Berger's insights are profound, some are revolutionary, some are radical. and many are brilliant ('although I don't think Berger would necessarily enjoy my use of the word "brilliant"). If you are interested in the 20th century's most influential visual artist this is a "must read."
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