Art and Revolution, while purporting to be a book on [Soviet sculptor Ernst] Neizvestny and the role of the artist in the U.S.S.R., actually is a brilliant chapter in Berger's continuing inner debate on the social role of the artist and his obligations to society.

The fact is that Berger uses Neizvestny as a tool to expound his own theories. Neizvestny is convenient because Berger believes that the sculptor has remained faithful to the idea of the revolutionary role of the artist…. Berger believes that the Russian artist has been preoccupied throughout history with truth and purpose rather than with aesthetic pleasure….

He believes that art criticism, at its best, is a form of intervention between the work of art and its public. Thus his essay on Neizvestny becomes a creative "intervention." (p. 99)

Berger maintains that Neizvestny is not opposing "private" art to "public" art...