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| Ways of Seeing: Based on the BBC Television Series | 
| Author: John Berger
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy Used: $1.47
You Save: $12.53 (90%)
New (57) Collectible (1) from $6.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  36 reviews
Sales Rank: 10244
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 176
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 4.9 x 0.4
ISBN: 0140135154
Dewey Decimal Number: 759.94
EAN: 9780140135152
ASIN: 0140135154
Publication Date: December 1, 1990
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: MINOR COVER AND PAGE EDGE WEAR, MINOR CREASING ON COVER; CLEAN PAGES, IN GOOD READING CONDITION
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 36-36 of 36 | | « PREV 1 ... | | |
 An eye opener to the real meaning of renaissance art April 17, 1997
11 out of 13 found this review helpful
I knew next to nothing about art when I picked this book up. I probably still don't, but at least I can now appreciate the value that "art" held for the patrons of the arts (specifically oils) during the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. One learns to appreciate the value these paintings held not only for the patrons who commissioned the paintings but for their peers and the other social classes of the time.Mr. Berger's theory to a degree is that these oils functioned as a sort of touchtone of wealth and status and, in a socially fashionable, acceptable and clever way, showcased one's earthly possessions and station in life.The patron via the painting told the world: I am socially, spritually and, on occasion, sexually superior. This commissioned "art" was a tasteful one-upmanship show. The patron called the shots where the iconography in the painting was concerned and the artist, inevitably a man of talent but with expenses, complied. This is not to say that the masters were hacks.But to coin a phrase they knew on which side their canvas was oiled.Nothing much seems to have changed today, accordiing to Mr. Berger. And here his theory of the function of visual art comes into clear focus. Mr. Berger uses this brief but dense text to do nothing less than show up or expose the power and fraud of marketing in contemportary society. Society appears to be a universe of unhappy individuals sharing the collective belief that by possessing or rather acquitring certain social icons they will be empowered and/or achieve everlasting hapiness. This is just an illusion of the genius of marketing-which is what the oils did during the age of the Masters!Interestingly enough, the tone of the book is not ironic but straightforward. The prose is not pedantic or abstract. It does not assume any knowledge of the history of art or of history for the matter.The text contains 155 black and white pictures of different works of art to illustrate his points.I wish they had been in color but I assume it would make the cost of the book prohibitive. These minor points lead me to believe that this book based on the BBC series was aimed for the mass market as opposed to the academic world. The conclusions Berger reaches in this age of multi-national markets, globalization and concentration of media are downright radical. Read this book before it is censored forever
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Wildlife, nature and the Environment
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