Ways of Seeing ( part 2)
- Katherine
- Apr 27
- 4 min read
Updated: Aug 9
click here for ways of seeing part 1
It was my ongoing exploration with the creative process ( previous post) which reminded me about this book; I was discussing the ways in which to 'see' in the creative process and Berger's arguments came to mind so I revisited the book to find out more about what he had to say.
I found the book somewhat serendipitously, in a second hand bookshop, during a stint as a Fine Art Tutor; teaching about how narratives are created and controlled by the artist. The book is an adaption of a BAFTA award-winning series with John Berger, which was regarded as one of the most influential art programmes ever made, albeit in 1972!
Here are the bits that got me thinking...
He starts off with a few reminders about visual communication — the kind of stuff that's easy to overlook;
We see before we read
Images existed before words
All images are man-made
In seeing, we establish our place in the surrounding world
...so images are more powerful than words…agree...
…And since all images are man-made, they’re really just someone's take on reality, not reality itself
...interesting, go on...
...And every time an image gets reproduced through another medium, it’s open to even more interpretation
....And that was before the medium of the internet….lots to think about there then...
Here's some of my own interpretations on reality...
…see what I did there… (in case you didn't this is a photograph I took in Black Park a few years ago, it felt like a generic landscape shot so I flipped the picture upside down using edit tools on my phone for my own take on reality)
Here’s a few more…
My take on the spiral staircase at Tate Britain...
...same stairs, different angle.
In the first programme, Berger examines the impact of reproduction and photography on our appreciation of art from the past; tracking its evolution from religious icons to more secular images of owned wealth.
The Ufizzi in Florence is the best place to see these icons btw...(Michelangelo, Botticelli, Giotto, Raphael, they were masters at a bit of religious iconography)
So if pre 1500 art was all about religion; Berger argues that between 1500 - 1900 European art was dominated by oil painting which was used for the purpose of emphasising the 'genius of the few'
European dominance, wealth and power was something you could own, buy and furnish
He renames a Holbein painting (below) as 'man convinced that the world is there to decorate and furnish his home'
.. yes, I see what you mean, Berger... merchandise was the new subject of art; oil painting celebrating the ownership of private possessions
In the second; he looks at the portrayal of the female nude, an important part of the tradition of European art. He asks whether they celebrate women as they really are or as men would like them to be.
'A woman in society surveys herself continually because how she appeals to others and especially to men, is of crucial importance to her life'
...interesting...are you thinking what I am thinking? more on this later...
In the fourth programme, Berger compares the images of advertising and publicity and how they relate to the tradition of oil painting - in moods, relationships and poses.
..see what I did there...
ok let's go back to the portrayal of women....
Berger argues that to be naked is to be oneself whereas a nude is to be seen as an object, so the women in art are there as sights to be looked at.
Female nudes, depicted in the European paintings pre 1900 were above all else, to be sexually provocative and appeal to male sexuality.
Bodies were arranged to display themselves to a male protagonist despite what else may have been going on in the composition; bodies were always languid and in a waiting pose (to fuel an appetite).
...Ok let's have another look at that Titian; did anyone notice the girl with her head in a box in the background? me neither, I see your point, Berger go on...
Lack of body hair was standard, as hair = sexual power which needed to be suppressed in women.
The images that western women have of themselves, comes, in part from European art, despite it being idealistic and somehow 'less human'
The message about women is that they are beautiful, as standard and if you are not, then you need to do something about it. This is perpetuated through marketing which is dominated by men
...sorry boys but you have to admit you are biased...
..well that's a bit depressing isn't it.
This part interests me more; where he argues that what women envy in men is their sense of identity, they have something in them, other than what other people think of them.
.... I'm now thinking about how men are idealised in society and feel they need to live up to something rather than being who they are, more on that later.
References
Episode 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jTUebm73IY
Image credits
Publication: Vogue US July 2019
Model: Margot Robbie
Photographer: Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin
Fashion Editor: Tonne Goodman
Hair: Christiaan
Make Up: Pati Dubroff
Edouard Manet
Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe
1863
huile sur toile
H. 207,0 ; L. 265,0 cm.
Donation Etienne Moreau-Nélaton, 1906
© RMN-Grand Palais (Musée d’Orsay) / Benoît Touchard / Mathieu Rabeau
Venus of Urbino, https://www.visituffizi.org/artworks/venus-of-urbino-by-titian/
The Ambassadors by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1533, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hans-Holbein-the-Younger
The Ognissanti Madonna by Giotto, 1310
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