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Ways of Seeing

A lecture based on the book of the


same title by art critic John Berger

Ways of Seeing Part I

Key terms
Image
History
Mystification

Ways of Seeing
The way we see
things is affected by
what we know or
believe.
We never look at just
one thing; we look at
our relationship
between things and
ourselves.

Ways of Seeing
Image:
All images are manmade
An image is a sight
which has been
recreated or
reproduced
Examples of images?

Paintings
Photographs
Drawings
Avatars

Ways of seeing
No other kind of relic or text from the past can
offer such a direct testimony about the world
which surrounded other people at other times.
We see art and are affected by a whole series of
learnt assumptions about art.

Beauty
Truth
Genius
Civilization
Form
Status
Taste, etc

Ways of Seeing
These assumptions obscure the past.
Bergers definition of history:
Out of true with the present, these
assumptions obscure the pastHistory
always constitutes the relation between a
present and its past.

Yet history is also clouded by a privileged


minority striving to invent its own history.

Ways of Seeing
The authoritative work to date (1969) on painter
Frans Hals says the following:
Each woman speaks to us the human condition with
equal importance. Each woman stands out with equal
clarity against the enormous dark surface, yet they are
linked by a firm rhythmical arrangement and the
subdued diagonal pattern formed by their heads and
hands. Subtle modulations of the deep, glowing
blacks contribute to the harmonious fusion of the
whole and form an unforgettable contrast with the
powerful whites and vivid flesh tones where the
detached strokes reach a peak of breadth and
strength.

Each woman speaks to us the human condition with


equal importance. Each woman stands out with equal
clarity against the enormous dark surface, yet they are
linked by a firm rhythmical arrangement and the subdued
diagonal pattern formed by their heads and hands.
Subtle modulations of the deep, glowing blacks
contribute to the harmonious fusion of the whole and
form an unforgettable contrast with the powerful whites
and vivid flesh tones where the detached strokes reach a
peak of breadth and strength.

Ways of Seeing
Background of paintings:
Frans Hals:

80 years old
Destitute most of his life
Commissioned to paint the portraits in the Winter
Given charity of peat to avoid freezing
Those who sat are the keepers of such charity

What affect might this have on the paintings?

Ways of Seeing
Or consider

Ways of Seeing
The authoritative text says:
It has, for example, been asserted
that the Regent in the tipped
slouch hat, which hardly covers
any of his long, lank hair, and
whose curiously set eyes do not
focus, was shown in a drunken
state.
He continues to say this is a libel.
Fashionable to wear hat like that
Could be a facial paralysis

Ways of seeing
Mystification: The process of explaining
away what might otherwise be evident

Ways of Seeing
Part II

Define the following:


1. Image:

a sight which has been recreated or reproduced

2. History:

Out of true with the present, these assumptions


obscure the pastHistory always constitutes the
relation between a present and its past.

3. Mystification:

The process of explaining away what might


otherwise be evident

Ways of Seeing
Today we see the art of the past as
nobody saw it before. We actually
perceive it in a different way.
Why?

Virgin of the Rocks


Leonardo da Vinci
National Gallery, London

The Virgin and Child with St. Anne


and St. John the Baptist
Leonardo da Vinci
National Gallery, London

Ways of Seeing
The Camera changed everything.
Mr. Waterman showed us this with the
Impressionists

Original paintings were an integral part of


a building for which they were designed.
Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel.
How has photography changed this?

Ways of Seeing
Images can be spliced and used for
specific purposes, not the original
purpose.
Because images are now reproducible,
they can, theoretically, be used by
anybody.

Ways of Seeing
Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci
Why do people flock to the Louvre to see
this?
Paintings now travel to the spectator
rather than the spectator to the painting.
Its meaning is diversified.

Ways of Seeing
The meaning of the original work no longer lies in
what it uniquely says but in what it uniquely is.
A visitor of the Mona Lisa might feel something
like this, I am in front of it. I can see it. This
painting by Leonardo is unlike any other in the
world. The Louvre has the real one. If I look at
this painting hard enough, I should somehow be
able to feel its authenticity. This is authentic,
therefore it is beautiful.
Then, we put a dollar amount on it. It has
become impressive, mysterious, because of its
market value.

This is the last painting Van Gogh painted before he


committed suicide.

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