Ways of Seeing
Dec 1, 2009 Art
You don’t need to be an art appreciation expert to read this. In fact, it might be better for you if you’re not. This collection of seven essays – three of which are entirely pictorial – is a million miles away from the dry, intellectual verbosity of stereotypical art critiques or histories. Opening with a scathing look at how art is kept as the province of the wealthy and educated, and ending with a damning analysis of publicity images, this book is like a bucket of cold water being poured over your brain.
Synopsis: How do we see the world around us? The Penguin on Design series includes the works of creative thinkers whose writings on art, design and the media have changed our vision forever. “Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak. But there is also another sense in which seeing comes before words. 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 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. First published in 1972, it was based on the BBC television series about which the (London) Sunday Times critic commented: “This is an eye-opener in more ways than one: by concentrating on how we look at paintings . . . he will almost certainly change the way you look at pictures”. By now he has.
December 1st, 2009 at 5:42 pm
I just got “The Shape of a Pocket” in the mail a few weeks ago–I’d read it before, a Poetry professor lent it to me. And now I have my own copy!
What really amazes me about Berger is that through his ruminations on visual art, one can look at other things in different ways. I write, and his voice comes into my head sometimes.
December 2nd, 2009 at 1:34 am
I’m not sure whether I found, borrowed or stole this many years ago, but however it got into my hands, it changed my point of view quite dramatically.
The essay on women in art is quite profound, as it offers up an insight, not only into how women are viewed, but also into how they view themselves.
This book was the core inspiration for a large percentage of my degree, and it is something that I have referred back to many times.