John Berger's Ways of Seeing changed the way people think about painting and art criticism. This watershed work shows, through word and image, how what we see is always influenced by a whole host of assumptions concerning the nature of beauty, truth, civilization, form, taste, class and gender. Exploring the layers of meaning within oil paintings, photographs and graphic art, Berger argues that when we see, we are not just looking - we are reading the language of images.
Cast: John Berger
Ways of Seeing
4 episodes
1. Psychological AspectsThe first part of the television series drew on ideas from Walter Benjamin's The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction arguing that through reproduction an Old Master's painting's modern context is severed from that which existed at the time of its making.CC29minJan 8, 1972- 2. Women in ArtThe second film discusses the female nude. Berger asserts that only twenty or thirty nudes in the European oil painting tradition depict a woman as herself rather than as a subject of male idealisation or desire.CC29minJan 15, 1972
3. Collectors and CollectingThe third programme is on the use of oil paint as a means of depicting or reflecting the status of the individuals who commissioned the work of art.CC29minJan 22, 1972
4. Commercial ArtIn the fourth programme, on publicity and advertising, Berger argues that colour photography has taken over the role of oil paint, though the context is reversed. An idealised potential for the viewer (via consumption) is considered a substitution for the actual reality depicted in old master portraits.CC29minJan 29, 1972
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Ways of Seeing
John Berger's Ways of Seeing changed the way people think about painting and art criticism. This watershed work shows, through word and image, how what we see is always influenced by a whole host of assumptions concerning the nature of beauty, truth, civilization, form, taste, class and gender. Exploring the layers of meaning within oil paintings, photographs and graphic art, Berger argues that when we see, we are not just looking - we are reading the language of images.
Creators and cast
- Directors
- Mike Dibb
- Created by
- John Berger
- Cast
- John Berger
Maturity rating
Not yet rated.
Audio languages
English
Where to watch
Not currently listed on any streaming, rental or purchase service.
