The impulse to paint comes neither from observation nor from the soul (which is probably blind) but from an encounter: the encounter… — John Berger Copy Share Image
Oil painting did to appearances what capital did to social relations. It reduced everything to the equality of objects. Everything became exchangeable… — John Berger Copy Share Image
In drawing after drawing, pastel after pastel, painting after painting, the contours of Degas's dancing figures become, at a certain point, darkly… — John Berger Copy Share Image
Unlike any other visual image, a photograph is not a rendering, an imitation or an interpretation of its subject, but actually a… — John Berger Copy Share Image
Until 1954, I'd only ever thought of being a painter, but I earned my money when and where I could. You could… — John Berger Copy Share Image
A drawing is essentially a private work, related only to the artist's own needs; a 'finished' statue or canvas is essentially a… — John Berger Copy Share Image
Malevich, Lissitsky, Kandinsky, Tatlin, Pevsner, Rodchenko… all believed in the social role of art… Their works were like hinged doors, connecting activity… — John Berger Copy Share Image
All photographs are there to remind us of what we forget. In this - as in other ways - they are the… — John Berger Copy Share Image
The collaboration which sometimes follows is seldom based on good will: usually on desire, rage, fear, pity or longing. The modern illusion… — John Berger Copy Share Image
When I was about seven, one or two people encouraged me, and art became an enormous and important refuge. By adolescence, I… — John Berger Copy Share Image
“Oil painting, before anything else, was a celebration of private property. As an art-form it derived from the principle that you are… — John Berger Copy Share Image
What any true painting touches is an absence - an absence of which without the painting, we might be unaware. And that… — John Berger Copy Share Image
You painted a naked woman because you enjoyed looking at her, put a mirror in her hand and you called the painting… — John Berger Copy Share Image
In the average European oil painting of the nude the principal protagonist is never painted. He is the spectator in front of… — John Berger Copy Share Image
Every painted image of something is also about the absence of the real thing. All painting is about the presence of absence. — John Berger Copy Share Image
When a painter is working he is aware of the means which are available to him - these include his materials, the… — John Berger Copy Share Image
Painting is something that you need to do, if not every day, then certainly most days. It is almost like being a… — John Berger Copy Share Image
When we read a story, we inhabit it. The covers of the book are like a roof and four walls. — John Berger Copy Share Image
The impulse to paint comes neither from observation nor from the soul (which is probably blind) but from an encounter: the encounter between painter… — John Berger Copy Share Image
Oil painting did to appearances what capital did to social relations. It reduced everything to the equality of objects. Everything became exchangeable because everything… — John Berger Copy Share Image
Landscapes can be deceptive. Sometimes a landscape seems to be less a setting for the life of its inhabitants than a curtain behind which… — John Berger Copy Share Image
We live in a dominant culture of ceaseless Departure and Progress that has so far lasted two or three centuries. — John Berger Copy Share Image
My heart born naked was swaddled in lullabies. Later alone it wore poems for clothes. Like a shirt I carried on my back the… — John Berger Copy Share Image
There's the artist's intimacy and truthfulness to himself, but an equal intimacy to the Other [the one drawn]. Picasso drawings are like that... the… — John Berger Copy Share Image
Traditional Chinese art looked at the Earth from a Confucian mountain top; Japanese art looked closely around screens; Italian Renaissance art surveyed conquered nature… — John Berger Copy Share Image
Never again shall a single story be told as though it were the only one. — John Berger Copy Share Image
In drawing after drawing, pastel after pastel, painting after painting, the contours of Degas's dancing figures become, at a certain point, darkly insistent, tangled… — John Berger Copy Share Image
We never look at just one thing; we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves. — John Berger Copy Share Image
We can become anything. That is why injustice is impossible here. There may be the accident of birth, there is no accident of death.… — John Berger Copy Share Image
