He was born in Hackney in 1926 but moved to France in 1962 and lived there for over 50 years.
Berger was an internationalist and a brilliant polymath – art critic, painter, poet, novelist, essayist. He was a quite indefinable genius with words and creative concepts. He wrote a landmark treatise on the Western cultural aesthetic, “Ways Of Seeing”, which is still relevant nearly half a century later. His novel “G” won the 1972 Booker Prize. I would also recommend “A Fortunate Man” [1967, with Jean Mohr], a study of a country doctor’s life, and “Selected Essays” [2001, edited by kindred spirit Geoff Dyer]. And there are fascinating TV clips to explore on YouTube.
I remember reading “A Fortunate Man” and Ways of Seeing” as Uni texts many years ago – a profound influence.
Like many I suspect, it’s the works “A Fortunate Man” and “Ways of Seeing” with which I’m most familiar. His passing will prompt me to explore further.
I remember in particular being astonished at the perspective that “Ways of Seeing” brought to my own world view as a twenty-something, when I read it during my PGCE year.
Not to mention
http://www.rockstargames.com/newswire/article/60097/RIP-John-Berger-Famous-British-Novelist-Art-Critic-and-Secret-GTA-Lond
Wow. Great link, thanks.
Ways Of Seeing had a profound effect on me. From memory there was a TV series, and I still have the paperback – opened my eyes to so much, and I ruthlessly plundered the ideas when I taught Art and Design. A brilliant man, he was on tv recently again. I will dig the book out.
The TV series is on Youtube, and I watched it over the last couple of evenings. The core message stands up – that any image is trying to tell us something, regardless of the label attached to it (‘fine art’ and advertising in the examples used).