The Sense of Sight

Weaving art criticism with poetry, memoir with political commentary, this collection of essays is a prompt to reimagine the world

In The Sense of Sight, John Berger considers the peculiar and complex practice of attentive observation. Ranging through subjects as distant from each other as the Renaissance from Hiroshima, encountering artists such as Goya, Dürer, and Van Gogh, Berger explores the deeply political nature of our engagement with the visual world. Told through interrelated but wide-ranging essays, The Sense of Sight is a personal and cultural reflection on the power art has over our feelings and perceptions. Berger shows how art teaches us to see everything with new eyes.