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 man-

made– 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.

• Berger’s definition of history:– “Out of true with the present, these

assumptions obscure the past…History 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 past…History 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 RocksLeonardo da VinciNational Gallery, London

The Virgin and Child with St. Anne and St. John the BaptistLeonardo da VinciNational 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.