Even within a painting, if there was another male, the female would still be looking at the viewer. Many paintings had the female looking directly at the viewer, who was usually the owner of the painting, who was usually presumed as male. Oil paintings were painted for patrons as possessions. Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time (1945) by Bronzino shows Venus in a contorted 3/4th view with her posed toward the viewer. Any one of us has to be able to see something before describing it in words.
John berger ways of seeing summary book women series#
LanguageEnglish SubjectArt, architecture, photography PublisherPenguin Books Publication date 1972 Pages166 ISBN0-14-013515-4 OCLC23135054 Ways of Seeing is a 1972 television series of 30-minute films created chiefly by writer John Berger and producer Mike Dibb. Assignment AD7802 The opening words of John Berger’s Ways of Seeing are Seeing comes before words, with the implication that the child sees and recognises before it can express what it sees in words. Women are always aware of how they look as well as how others see her. Ways of Seeing AuthorJohn Berger Cover artistRené Magritte CountryU.K. In the sense in which we use the word in this book, all images are man-made. And often dialogue is an attempt to verbalize this - an attempt to explain how, either metaphorically or literally, you see things, and an attempt to discover how he sees things. He describes that a oman views herself in two ways, as the surveyed and as the surveyor (Berger 4). The reciprocal nature of vision is more fundamental than that of spoken dialogue. "A naked body has to be seen as an object in order to become a nude.” Berger writes how oil paintings as possessions and objects usually featured female nudes for the male audience and patron. Erin Svvanson Amanda Zoch English 131-17495 28 August 2012 A Different View In his essay, ‘Ways of Seeing, Iohn Berger discusses how women are seen differently then men. This essay concentrates on some of the aspects of the debatable book, WAYS OF SEEING by John Berger. The child looks andĬhapter 3 The female nude, nude vs nakedness Ways of Seeing by John Berger was a book that was published in 1972 and based on his successful BBC television series.Ĭhapter 1 "Seeing comes before words.