NEW BOOK:
BENTO’S SKETCHBOOK
BY JOHN BERGER
Available to buy now
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EVENTS:
Monday 23 May, 2011, 6:30pm at the British Library, 96 Euston Road, London, NW1 2DB
John Berger in conversation with Jay Griffiths; introduced by Simon McBurney, founder and artistic director of Complicite
In his new book John Berger has re-imagined the lost sketchbook of philosopher Benedict (or Bento) de Spinoza. It has become a book of his drawings and meditations about the world around us, how we perceive it and seek to explain it. John Berger, who recently donated his archive to the British Library, reads from his work and talks to writer Jay Griffiths.
Wednesday 25 May, 2011, 7:30pm at the Southbank Centre, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX
John Berger and Tilda Swinton read from Bento's Sketchbook – a meditation, in words and images, on the practice of drawing. With chair Laurie Taylor.
Friday 27 May, 2011, 7:00pm at the London Review Bookshop, 14 Bury Place, London, WC1A 2JL
John Berger presents Bento's Sketchbook and reads with a special guest
The seventeenth-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza—also known as Benedict or Bento de Spinoza—spent the most intense years of his short life writing. A sporadic draughtsman, he also carried with him a sketchbook. For years, John Berger has imagined finding Bento's sketchbook without knowing what its pages might hold, but wanting to see the drawings alongside his surviving words. When one day a friend gave Berger a beautiful, virgin sketchbook, John said “This is Bento's!” and he began to draw, taking his inspiration from the philosopher's vision. The result is Bento's Sketchbook—an exploration of the practice of drawing and a meditation on how art guides our gaze to the world: to flowers, to the human body, to the pitilessness of the new world order and the forms of resistance to it. John Berger will be at the bookshop to talk about and read from the book.
For more information visit: http://www.versobooks.com/events
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“I admire and love John Berger’s books. He writes about what is important, not just interesting. In contemporary English letters, he seems to me peerless; not since Lawrence has there been a writer who offers such attentiveness to the sensual world with responsiveness to the imperatives of conscience. He is a wonderful artist and thinker.” –
Susan Sontag
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The seventeenth-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza – also known as Benedict or Bento de Spinoza – spent the most intense years of his short life writing. A keen draughtsman, he also carried with him a sketchbook. After his sudden death, his friends rescued letters, manuscripts, notes – but the sketchbook was lost.
For years, John Berger has imagined finding Bento’s sketchbook without knowing what its pages might hold. When one day a friend gave Berger a virgin sketchbook, he began to draw, taking his inspiration from Bento’s perspective, sharing the freshness of his vision.
The result is a unique set of poetic, aphoristic reflections: part memoir, part work of art. With beautiful original illustrations by the author, BENTO’S SKETCHBOOK is an elegant exploration of the practice of drawing – a characteristically clear-sighted meditation on how we perceive, and seek to explain, our ever-changing relationship with the world around us.
BENTO’S SKETCHBOOK marks a new stage in Berger’s engagement with words and images, art and philosophy – and opens a window into the world of the iconic author. The sketchbook – of Bento or John Berger – leads us through, for example, Spinoza’s radical philosophy, London, economic inequality and religious conflict, dancing, ruminations on boundaries of time and the self, and encounters with Arundhati Roy and Andrei Platonov.
One of the most internationally influential public intellectuals of our times, Berger is often remembered for donating half his Booker Prize money for his novel G. to the Black Panthers, using the other half to fund writing A SEVENTH MAN, a study of migrant workers. Now in his early eighties, Berger is an outspoken supporter of a cultural boycott of Israel and recently travelled to Palestine.
The affinities between Bento and Berger, both with strong ethical and political convictions and eclectic pursuits, are striking. Bento challenged orthodoxies, both religious and political, with his highly original thought. At the age of 23, he was cast out from the Jewish community in which he was raised in Amsterdam. He, like Berger, lived a modest life, earning a living as a lens grinder. Berger’s description of Spinoza’s life after his cherem (excommunication) could be of his own life, after his self-imposed exile from Britain: he “was fascinated by optics. He drew... And he lived surrounded by friends who were sustained by his calm, his frugality, his cheerful humour, his pertinence, and his manner of being adequate.”
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Storyteller, essayist, novelist, screenwriter, dramatist and art critic, JOHN BERGER is one of the most internationally influential writers of the last fifty years. In 2009, he was awarded the Golden PEN Award for a lifetime’s distinguished service to literature, and has been the recipient of numerous other accolades, including the Guardian Fiction prize (1972) and the James Tait Black Memorial prize (1973). He is best known for his novel G., which won the 1972 Booker Prize, and for his art criticism including the landmark WAYS OF SEEING. His most recent books include: HERE IS WHERE WE MEET, the Booker-longlisted novel FROM A TO X: A STORY IN LETTERS, HOLD EVERYTHING DEAR, and his co-translation (with Rema Hammami) and illustration of MURAL, Mahmoud Darwish’s epic masterpiece.
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ISBN: 978 1 84467 684 2 / £14.99 / Hardcover / 176 pages
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For more information about BENTO’S SKETCHBOOK or to buy the book visit:
http://www.versobooks.com/books/982-bentos-sketchbook
For more by John Berger, visit:
http://www.versobooks.com/authors/485-john-berger
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