Permanent Red: Essays in Seeing

Why should an artist's way of looking at the world have any meaning for us? Any artwork reflects the artist's intentions, but also its times: therefore all art is political

In Permanent Red, John Berger argues that the contemporary artist should strive for a realism that aims for hope, to transform the world. Surveying the work of historical artists as well as that of near contemporaries such as Picasso, L?ger and Matisse, he explores the role of the artist, dividing these figures into those that struggle, those that fail, and the true masters. He explains why we should study the work of the past: in order to understand the present and to rethink the future.

First published in 1960, Permanent Red established John Berger as a firebrand critic willing to broadcast controversial opinions on some of the most important British artists of the day, including Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth.

Author: John Berger
Publisher: Verso
Published: 03/25/2025
Pages: 224
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.40lbs
Size: 7.70h x 5.00w x 0.60d
ISBN13: 9781804298473
ISBN10: 1804298476
BISAC Categories:
- Art | Art & Politics
- Art | Individual Artists | Essays
- Social Science | Sociology | Social Theory

About the Author
Storyteller, novelist, essayist, screenwriter, dramatist and critic, John Berger is one of the most internationally influential writers of the last fifty years. His many books include Ways of Seeing, the fiction trilogy Into Their Labours, Here Is Where We Meet, the Booker Prize-winning novel G, Hold Everything Dear, the Man Booker-longlisted From A to X, and A Seventh Man.