ASSIGNMENT

John Berger in Ways of Seeing compares oil paintings, as they were viewed and used originally (and still are oftentimes) to what he calls modern day “publicity” (also known as advertising). How does he argue this, and to what end? [Note: this could provide much “food for thought” for us as we go about our encounters with various arts venues during the session this summer.]

Response

John Berger discusses how a picture offers what no other relic or text from the past can offer. It is a direct testimony about the world which surrounded other people at other times. He says that these pictures, images, paintings offer a more precise and richer window into the past then any form of literature.

He further discusses an art history book that was published that discusses paintings and choose to use words such as “harmonious fusion, unforgettable contrast, reaching a peak of breadth and strength” and in doing so the author of this book produces circumstantial evidence to establish the relationship between the painter and the subjects. The author is judging the painting and adding words to it. Berger later shows an example of a Van Gogh painting, strategically placed on the bottom of the right side of the page and states “This is a landscape of a cornfield with birds flying out of it. Look at it for a moment. Then turn the page.” This exercise is an opportunity for an admirer to conclude their own story or their own feelings of what the painting is and what is going on. Then as a reader, we turn the page to see an identical painting with the words “This is the last painting that Van Gogh painted before he killed himself” Suddenly, with the presences of these words the picture takes on another meaning and reflects the statement.

Berger discusses publicity, which is actually advertising, that depicts art as a way of showing the viewer that with this product, i.e. a pen, a bar of soap an alcoholic beverage, we can transform ourselves, or our lives, by buying something more. This, he states, will make us richer-even if we become poorer trying to obtain it. Berger says the use of art signifies wealth, because in it original format it was what people had. Now it represents what people should have to live the better life or the richer life.