He mentions that people who have been denied this right have been denied freedoms. In such a way implying Berger placing us in history explains that he has taken us to the creators of artworks and gotten us to really think about their true motivations in producing them. If Berger has not discovered or perceived the past, then he has either completely misinterpreted the paintings about which he has written, or he has advanced our thoughts and opinions for the better by stimulating new questions and ideas about art.
#John berger ways of seeing amazon free#
T is hard to appreciate or comprehend different pieces of art of which you cannot allow your mind to become free and to go back in time to understand feelings and thoughts of different artists. He writes, “The art of the past no longer exists as it once did. In a way it is bad, Berger teaches us, to go above and beyond or over analyze works and “mystifying” them. From a negative perspective, we as a people may adapt works of art to twenty first century society and completely overlook their meanings. From a positive point a view, images from the past can aid us in understanding a artists feelings throughout their span of life however, our ways of thinking an viewpoints are constantly changing. The connection Berger shows among the past and the present, is one that grasp both positive and negative prospects. In my own experience, if I had to define history based on its use in this assignment, I would more then likely come up with something such as history is a combination of societies feelings and apprehensions of life, leading up to present day. Contemporary devices impact interpretation, paintings can also changes one’s mind to places throughout history. Berger states, “the invention of the camera changed the way man saw”, because of the camera, the painting now journeys to the observer, versus observer to the painting, during its travels, its meaning becomes diversified. Over time, it becomes more difficult to somewhat grasp a painter’s original feelings, thoughts and intents when painting a specific piece, also, the ways in which we view pictures has changed, through things such as the development of the camera. It is relevant in pictures, because many perspectives on viewing the pictures is continually changing. In this sense, history stands for art’s authenticity over time.
It be cool if museums in the future take this modern desire in consideration – though I have no idea what they could do to make those great paintings come to life in the modern context. This is relevant to the detail which Berger infuses in his writing about how different classes of people interpret museums.
In Berger’s more classically Marxist formulation he states, “A people or a class which is cut off from its own past is far less free to choose and to act as a people or class than one that has been able to situate itself in history”. In “Ways of Seeing,” art critic John Berger discusses a key argument, which is, that if you know your history, then you know where you are coming from.