Pioneering British art critic John Berger, intellectual and author whose 1972 book and the BBC series ’Ways of Seeing’ redefined the way a generation pursued art, died at his home in the Paris suburb of Antony.
Berger had been ill for about a year. He was 90 years old.
Berger was the author of art criticism novels, poetry, screenplays and many other books. The Marxist intellectual constantly challenged the traditional western aesthetics and brought a political perspective to art criticism.
Berger won the Booker Prize in 1972 for his novel ‘G’. He donated half of the prize money to the revolutionary American group the ‘Black Panthers’.
Berger was born in Hackney, north London, and began his career as a painter.
Berger also wrote several screenplays. His 1976 movie ‘John Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000’ is a political drama set amid the 1968 protests in Paris.
Berger was famous for the perspective changing 1972 BBC series ‘Ways of Seeing’. The series consistently challenged traditional interpretations of art and society and connections between the two. ‘Ways of Seeing’ challenged the western aesthetics and showed how mass media fundamentally altered our perception of art.
