RIP John Berger, English art critic, novelist, painter and poet

[Argonia]

Aged 90. The first wave of the curse of 2017?

 

[William of Walworth]

I'm shocked by this, although I must admit I didn't know he'd reached 90.
His writing and criticism is massively important in art and cultural history.

Looks like someone's added his death-date to his (very interesting) Wiki page already ...

 

[Orang Utan]

aw, i was just talking about him today with my dad. I admitted nicking a copy of Ways Of Seeing from a bookshop when I was an impoverished student

 

[editor]

Aged 90. The first wave of the curse of 2017?

Hardly a curse given that 90 is a pretty good age to live to. A bit of background:

John Peter Berger was an English art critic, novelist, painter and poet. His novel G. won the 1972 Booker Prize, and his essay on art criticism Ways of Seeing, written as an accompaniment to a BBC series, is often used as a university text. Wikipedia
London Borough of Hackney

 

[danny la rouge]

John Berger, art critic and author, dies aged 90

Ways of Seeing is an excellent book, and I wish the TV programme would be repeated (apparently there's too many images with too many copyright disputes).

 

[William of Walworth]

Means a lot to me as my late mother had all, or at least most, of his books. Once I got my V & A job, and I started getting aware of art history properly, I dipped into them a lot both at home and at work ...

I'll have to check upstairs if I kept all of my mum's John Berger books (or whether my brother kept some).

 

[Orang Utan]

Did this get unnecessarily added to the OP title?
English art critic, novelist, painter and poet

 

[killer b]

John Berger, art critic and author, dies aged 90

Ways of Seeing is an excellent book, and I wish the TV programme would be repeated (apparently there's too many images with too many copyright disputes).

The entire series is streamable on ubuweb, albeit in quite poor Quality.

Sad to hear he's gone anyway, I just picked up a recent book by him (hold everything dear) and am about to start it...

 

[killer b]

UbuWeb Film & Video: John Berger - Ways of Seeing (1972)

 

[editor]

Did this get unnecessarily added to the OP title?
English art critic, novelist, painter and poet

Yes I added it as a courtesy because not everyone may know immediately who he was.

*edit: thread merged

 

[danny la rouge]

The entire series is streamable on ubuweb, albeit in quite poor Quality.

Sad to hear he's gone anyway, I just picked up a recent book by him (hold everything dear) and am about to start it...

What's ubuweb?

ETA: Ah, you anticipated me. Cheers.

 

[killer b]

What's ubuweb?

ETA: Ah, you anticipated me. Cheers.

It's the best website on the Internet. Have a dig through, they have some amazing stuff.

 

[danny la rouge]

It's the best website on the Internet. Have a dig through, they have some amazing stuff.

Thanks. I'll see if I can get it on my smart TV.

 

[editor]

 

[editor]

 

[marty21]

Sad news , just bought one of his books ,Hold Everything Dear.

Found out a few months ago that I work with his Niece, lovely woman ,very committed Union Rep.

 

[danny la rouge]

UbuWeb Film & Video: John Berger - Ways of Seeing (1972)

Aposite quote from that link:

"One way our own society is unlike 1972 is in the fact that, despite the enormous plethora of TV and internet TV we have now, nobody has made anything quite like this. In art history, the treatment of women's bodies, in our relationship with objects and property and in advertising (the themes of the four films) the same mystifications and objectifications and manipulations carry on. What doesn't carry on is analysis of them on this level."

 

[ChrisD]

Seeing/reading "ways of seeing" changed my whole outlook on life in the 1970s. Lots of things since have also struck a chord including in "Bentos sketchbook" a lovely comparison of an artist drawing a line and a motorcyclist taking a line.
Rest in Power - JB. Artist, critic and motorcyclist

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Ways of seeing is a great book. I had no idea there was a tv show. Will check it out.

Berger had a magnificent face. Maggi Hambling really captured him.

 

[killer b]

Aposite quote from that link:

"One way our own society is unlike 1972 is in the fact that, despite the enormous plethora of TV and internet TV we have now, nobody has made anything quite like this. In art history, the treatment of women's bodies, in our relationship with objects and property and in advertising (the themes of the four films) the same mystifications and objectifications and manipulations carry on. What doesn't carry on is analysis of them on this level."

it's a tempting thing to agree with, but I don't think it's really true.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

it's a tempting thing to agree with, but I don't think it's really true.

Bronowski's Ascent of Man was made the same time. Play for Today was running strongly (although I guess we only remember the good ones). Was there more ambition in those years among programme commissioners who weren't scared of being overtly intellectual?

Something that struck me watching Life on Earth 2 recently was how, enjoyable to watch though it was, it was not the same kind of thing as Life on Earth 1. In the first series, each episode was a self-contained essay. In the second, that had given way to the demand for spectacle.

 

[Pickman's model]

Dead at 90

 

[Nigel]

R.I.P.
Don't really know much about his work; painting or otherwise but looked like a good bloke !

 

[danny la rouge]

it's a tempting thing to agree with, but I don't think it's really true.

I'm not aware of analysis of those things at that level currently being shown on TV. I'd be delighted to learn that I'm simply not aware of it but that it's there nonetheless.

 

[Pickman's model]

Aged 90. The first wave of the curse of 2017?

The last of the class of '16 to jump into the grave before the unremitting horror of '17 really gets going

 

[redcogs]

Touched on his work a little at university, particularly 'ways of seeing', a broadly marxist history of the development of art and culture. i remember it as inspired and inspiring. RIP John, you enabled a few scales to fall from many eyes.

 

[Throbbing Angel]

Touched on his work a little at university, particularly 'ways of seeing', a broadly marxist history of the development of art and culture. i remember it as inspired and inspiring. RIP John, you enabled a few scales to fall from many eyes.

Same here - ways of seeing/uni/scales.

I've been meaning to read 'G' for ages.

 

[danny la rouge]

John Berger (RIP) and Susan Sontag Take Us Inside the Art of Storytelling (1983) | Open Culture

 

[killer b]

I'm not aware of analysis of those things at that level currently being shown on TV. I'd be delighted to learn that I'm simply not aware of it but that it's there nonetheless.

There aren't, but mass-media has changed significantly since WOS was made. Your quote explicitly mentions internet TV - youtube is full of people doing pieces to camera on these topics and more, often in much more detail than is possible in the half hour format Berger was restricted to. What they don't have is the platform that Berger was given, but to say the material doesn't exist is nonsense.

 

[danny la rouge]

There aren't, but mass-media has changed significantly since WOS was made. Your quote explicitly mentions internet TV - youtube is full of people doing pieces to camera on these topics and more, often in much more detail than is possible in the half hour format Berger was restricted to. What they don't have is the platform that Berger was given, but to say the material doesn't exist is nonsense.

I'm never quite (at all) sure what "Internet TV" means. I'm certainly not at home with the world of "vloggers" or original content for YouTube. So there may well be well-made, watchable, erudite content I'm missing. I can only take your word for it that it's "nonsense" to say the material isn't being made now. I guess the question is whether in each instance its existence is known of by many.