"Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak.""But there is also another sense in which seeing comes before words. It is seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world; we explain that world with words, but word can never undo the fact that we are surrounded by it. The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled."John Berger's "Ways of Seeing" is one of the most stimulating and the most influential books on art in any language. First published in 1972, it was based on the BBC television series about which the "London Sunday Times" critic commented: "This is an eye-opener in more ways than one: by concentrating on how we look at paintings ...he will almost certainly change the way you look at pictures." By now he has.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 3.5 / 5.0
great book for teaching teenagers about art and advertising!:
Sure, it was written in the 1970's, sure it's full of Marxist theory, sure it's over-confident in its theorizing. But so what? This is a great book! I use it in my high school Theory of Knowledge class and in Art History too. The kids "get" Berger's ideas (outdated though they've been called) and it's always a great discussion starter!
review for this book:
this product was delieved in a short time. A+ for that. but i give it a C for the quality of the book. yes its a used book but i think they could have selected a better looking book. over all B
A Foundation of the Post-modern:
Even though "Ways of Seeing" is a flawed book in many ways, it is so seminal in the development of post-modern image making that it must be considered essential reading in critical theory. The book is based on a television series. The book itself is only 176 pages. The print is all in a bold, sans-serif font. The authors are quick to claim that the book was made, not written. The pictures used to demonstrate the points are small and in black and white. The book is based on the theory that the... more info
Good to See Some Honest Debate Here:
"Ways of Seeing " has become so universally available, so overused (especially in academia), and so often quoted, that it's refreshing to read the reviews of so many intelligent naysayers here. "Ways of Seeing" is perhaps mistitled in that it really proposes only one way of seeing works of art, which is as artifacts in the history of capitalism. It is propaganda, and like most propaganda, it heavily skews the evidence in favor of it's main argument, which is basically that European art from Raphael to... more info
