Ways of Seeing

From MarxWiki

John Berger's book Ways of Seeing is an adaptation of a BBC series from 1972. In a series of seven brief essays ( four of which are pictoral), meant to be read in any order, Berger discusses questions relating to art history, contemporary advertising industry, and the ways in which our `ways of seeing` are predicated on the power dynamics of gender and capital. He draws upon the Benjaminian ideas of aura and nostalgia, for example, in his first essay as he discusses the ways in which historical works of art are accorded. He also politicizes the subject of art history by pointing out that art, despite its pretensions, is always grounded in a material/power context:

`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. This is why-- and this is the only reason why-- the entire art of the past has now become a political issue` (33).

Ways of Seeing applies a Marxist analysis to the study of traditional `high art` and an interpretation of the predominant contemporary visual culture of publicity. Berger establishes an explication of the traditional oil painting as necessarily a cultural (and economic) product of capitalism. Rather than being apolitical, spiritual appeals to universal aesthetic and moral values, these works are inescapably a highly politicized affirmation of private ownership for the bourgeoisie of their time. Only by denying works’ immediate historical contexts can their function as a celebration of private property, specifically the omnipotence of capital, be overlooked (Berger 11).

The hope is that demystifying traditionally highly-regarded works of art and contextualizing them historically will obstruct their utility as symbols to reinforce social and class domination.

Berger exposes the underlying contradiction of individualism in the traditional account of individual excellence which definies resistance to, and triumph over cultural, social and aesthetic norms (of capitalism) as the means of (re)setting the standards of high culture. Berger claims that truly exceptional artworks have been generated in spite of the tradition of their times rather than being the supreme representatives of that period within the tradition.

Another one of Berger's influential ideas is the subject of the male gaze, which has become instrumental in feminist film theory. In discussing the genre of the female nude painting, Berger points out that the intended spectator/owner of the painting has always been a man. Due to patriarchy, the ways in which men look at women are never neutral, but instead illustrate and reinforce the inequity of power between the genders. Men act; women are acted upon:

`The social presence of women has developed as a result of their ingenuity in living under such tutelage within such a limited space. But this has been at the cost of a woman’s self being split into two. A woman must continually watch herself. She is almost continually accompanied by her own image of herself. Whilst she is walking across a room or whislt she is weeping at the death of her father, she can scarely avoid envisaging herself walking or weeping. From earliest childhood she has been taught and persuaded to survey herself continually. (46)`