Berger gives examples using, among others, Pieter Bruegel’s The Procession to Calvary Vincent Van Gogh’s Wheatfield with Crows and Francisco Goya’s The Third of May 1808. If presented on film, camera movement and music also play a part. When a painting is reproduced in a textbook, for example, details may be cut out to force your focus somewhere, or arranged to form a narrative, or compared with other works, and words surround the painting that will influence your reading of it. The episode points out the ways in which photographic technology has changed the way we look at art-it has made it more accessible, but it can also manipulate. In the first episode, he establishes his aim: to get people to cut the mumbo-jumbo that always rises up around art and instead approach art directly, much like children. It’s still in print!īerger’s super-conversational style and his bucking against tradition no doubt contribute to his appeal. The script was adapted the same year into a book, a collaboration among Berger, Mike Dibb (BBC producer/director), Richard Hollis (graphic designer), Chris Fox (consultant), and Sven Blomberg (artist). “A British arts broadcasting landmark” and “a key moment in the democratisation of art education,” The Guardian calls it. One of his most celebrated achievements is the BAFTA Award–winning Ways of Seeing, a four-episode television program written and presented by Berger and originally airing in 1972 on the BBC. His life’s work is dedicated to this endeavor.
JOHN BERGER WAYS OF SEEING PG 8 HOW TO
John Berger-essayist, novelist, poet, screenwriter, art critic-loves to help people see what is around them, teach them how to look at the world.