Art and Revolution : Ernst Neizvestny, Endurance, and the Role of the Artist

by John Berger, John Berger

Release Date: 17 March, 1998

Edition: Paperback

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Berger's Insights on Russia via Neizvestny

This extended essay brings to light the otherwise obscure artist Ernst Neizvestny. Berger's gaze intensifies on the particular circumstances of Neizvestny to draw out broader tendencies also being traced in the book, such as Russian iconic art, Soviet revolutionary art and politics, and aspirations of art more generally:

"[Neizvestny] is concerned with neither viscera no complexes. He is concerned with creating an image of man that celebrates his total nature."

Berger's prose flashes with insight into both Russian art and Neizvestny's sculpture. He lays out his critique sensibly and presents the subject with enough balance between the social, biographical, and critical that the reader is consistently drawn forward along each of those perspectives. The prints - like Berger's words - are also well-chosen and provide a solid visual basis for the discussion at hand.

Concerning the rant that closes the book: it is an anachronism largely because of its hopes for the Soviet Union. However, our discomfort at reading it may also betray our own cynicism about the truth that we face an "intolerable condition of inequality in the world".

Criticism or Political Tract?

Well, the book's fairly interesting when it talks about the history of Russian Academic art, and also when it explores the work of Neizvestny. But the third section degenerates into a Marxist scrred against "imperialism". The book was written in the late 60's, so I suppose I can understand the author's optimism (naivite?) about the prospects of Communism, but all the same, I finished the book feeling that Neizvestny had been used by the author to further his own viewpoint. The description of the book, read in retrospect, is more interesting than the contents.