“The art of any period tends to serve the ideological interests of the ruling class.” This essay deals with a very specific social issue and dissects it. Berger further differentiates between being naked and nude and criticises the system of gender hierarchies, where man is often the spectator while the woman is seen as an object, subservient to man. He talks about the male gaze and power entitlement within representations, where women are often objectified and labelled. Specifically the female form in paintings and sculptures among others. In his third essay, Berger focuses on women’s place in art. Consequently how a woman appears to a man can determine how she will be treated.” Book Design ©Richard Hollis John Berger ©The New Yorker Berger wants to demystify art and transmit an understanding that dismisses elitism and start a process of questioning. Berger believes that we establish our place in the world by seeing and by being seen, and how we see things is often mediated by society’s assumed concepts such as beauty, form, taste, truth and the value of art that tends to hide the original meaning and build up a false mystification around it. He explains the difference between optics and perspectives and how our personal biases and surroundings affect the way we scrutinise a piece of art. His first essay focuses on seeing and knowing, the lapse between vision and knowledge. Inspired by Walter Benjamin’s The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Production, Berger examines manipulated human perception and explores the idea of art as a commodity. John Berger is a British painter, novelist, poet and art critic who bases his point of view on his experiences explains what it means to see. “We never look at just one thing we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves.” Ways Of Seeing ©Village Books Book Design ©Richard Hollis A masterpiece that draws parallels between art, advertising, desire and capitalism. This book recreates the feeling of the television, almost reading like Berger’s declarative script pulling one inside the text with its characteristically pithy sentences. The design of the book done by Richard Hollis, who matches the weight of the images by setting the text in bold, Univers 75 black in an awkward layout. Famous for its visual art criticism, John Berger’s Ways Of Seeing raises questions about how we see images and what influences us when we see them – drawing our attention to the relationship between vision, images, words and meaning. Four of these essays are worded and three are pictorial. he will almost certainly change the way you look at pictures.' By now he has.If you enjoyed Ways of Seeing, you might like Susan Sontag's On Photography, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.John Berger’s Ways Of Seeing, originally a BBC television series, was further elaborated in the format of a book that consists of seven essays.
JOHN BERGER WAYS OF SEEING REVIEW SERIES
First published in 1972, it was based on the BBC television series about which the Sunday Times critic commented- 'This is an eye-opener in more ways than one- by concentrating on how we look at paintings. The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled.' John Berger's Ways of Seeing is one of the most stimulating and influential books on art in any language. It is seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world we explain that world with words, but word can never undo the fact that we are surrounded by it.
The child looks and recognizes before it can speak.''But there is also another sense in which seeing comes before words. Based on the BBC television series, John Berger's Ways of Seeing is a unique look at the way we view art, published as part of the Penguin on Design series in Penguin Modern Classics.'Seeing comes before words.