A major new book from one of the world’s leading writers and art critics John Berger, one of the world’s most celebrated art writers, takes us through centuries of drawing and painting, revealing his lifelong fascination with a diverse cast of artists. In Portraits, Berger grounds the artists in their historical milieu in revolutionary ways, whether enlarging on the prehistoric paintings of the Chauvet caves or Cy Twombly’s linguistic and pictorial play. In penetrating and singular prose, Berger presents entirely new ways of thinking about artists both canonized and obscure, from Rembrandt to Henry Moore, Jackson Pollock to Picasso. Throughout,...

Using concepts such as mimicry, interstice, hybridity and liminality to argue that cultural production is always at its most prolific when it is ambivalent, the author proposes ideas for rethinking identity, social agency and national affiliation.