The Success and Failure of Picasso

“So it’s also important as a book for thinking about Berger. He quotes Picasso writing to his dealer, Marius de Zayas, and explaining why there’s huge formal variety in his work. He says, ”Whenever I’ve had something to say, I’ve said it in the manner in which it ought to be said.” That is a good template for what Berger has done throughout his life. We were talking earlier about the shift from painting to writing. The thinking behind that is that painting was no longer the best way he had for saying what he wanted to say, writing was, and within that there’s the formal variety of all the different sorts of writing Berger has done: poetry, poems, plays, novels, short fiction, essays.” Read more...

The best books on John Berger

Tom Overton, Biographer

“Picasso’s such a varied and impossible to pin down character. What can be produced in the process of trying to get there is the interesting thing.”

The best books on John Berger recommended by Tom Overton

Picasso Books