| | Ways of Seeing |  | Publisher: Viking Press
Category: Book
Buy Used: $2.49
Avg. Customer Rating:  36 reviews
Media: Paperback
ISBN: 9995402807
EAN: 9789995402808
ASIN: 9995402807
Publication Date: January 1995
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: name written on the outer edges of the pages, highlighting or writing on some pages
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| Customer Reviews:
 Really a bunch of claptrap August 16, 2006
13 out of 41 found this review helpful
After reading this iconic work, I felt as if I had been ripped off with only myself to blame. I should have known better. The book is SOOOOOOO 70's! I'll give it two stars simply because it's really so out-of-date it's almost campy.
Okay, early oil paintings depicted the upper classes with their "stuff" and the "stuff" of the upper classes. So? It's pretty elemental to figure out that those painters had to make a living and they painted for those who were able to pay them. Duh. Okay, women were depicted in oil paintings as possessions and, in turn, viewed themselves in the light of the value the possessor placed on them. Deep and enlightening, huh?
It gets worse. We get a healthy dose of the "capitalism is bad" philosophy and the hammering that advertising is meant to keep the masses enslaved to capitalism. Nineteen seventies style collectivism is so boring. Of course, Berger offers no alternative other than some passing reference to his vague definition of democracy.
Maybe it's just so out-dated, it's no longer relevant. Maybe it played better to the 1970's. Maybe we've heard this claptrap for so many years, it's no longer novel or meaningful. And, maybe, it's because we've matured enough to realize criticism without any offering of alternatives is simply disingenuous and superficial.
 Not as out of date as some would have you believe July 31, 2006
22 out of 23 found this review helpful
Several other reviewers say this book is out of date. In some ways, yes. But some of the most important points of this book still seem valid.
Specifically:
1.) Art is an artificial market whose value is talked up by art historians and gallery owners.
2.) The depiction of the female nude in art has always contained a exploitative voyeuristic overtone.
3.) The measure of man's power lies in who they can have power over.
4.) The measure of woman's power lies in who can have power over them.
It's small surprise his opinions were buried by academia and the art establishment. These were never popular opinions, but taken in the context of art history and the art market they provide a great counterpoint.
Even now, this book is a great way to demystify the art market for the art student.
 Needs to be updated February 25, 2006
3 out of 7 found this review helpful
I read this book in college and enjoyed it very much . I returned to it recently and found it to be interesting, but a bit sophmoric. I realize that it's meant for a general audeince, but it still felt that I was being talked down to. With that being said, it still has some value for those needing an introduction to general theories of how we read art.
I've seen. January 31, 2006
2 out of 7 found this review helpful
In all reality, this book is an eye-opener. Some people don't know how to respond to art, and this book gives quite an in-depth view of how to do so. I've used it for 2 classes in college, and it never gets old.
Social commentary caught up in the burning issues of its own time December 13, 2005
8 out of 12 found this review helpful
This book is basically Marxist view of art, and what art is intended to accomplish. This isn't necessarily a bad thing! It does help you to examine your assumptions and beliefs a bit, and that's one of the things an education is supposed to do.
The book repeatedly hammers the idea that art serves the purposes of the ruling class. This is beat upon to the point of tediousness. There is also a chapter that can be summarized as "art serves the purposes of powerful men by trivializing women and encouraging them to think of themselves as an object d'art for the viewing pleasure of others. Oddly enough, the book didn't really return to this them in the final essay when it talked about the visual image in advertising. That's an arena where visual imagery is used to play on the insecurities of everyone, but especially women, to convince them that they are flawed and need __(fill in the name of a product)____ to be happy and respected and glamorous. Speaking of which, one of the more interesting points in the book (even though I believe it is flat wrong) is the discussion of the rise of "glamor" as a desirable trait.
I found the book interesting, and it irritated me, but only in a good way--By making me think about my views. But it really is written from the perspectives of a trendy liberal from the early 1970s. Instead of closing with a powerful message summarizing some important aspect of art that we have been taught, the authors even use the final paragraph of the last essay to point out that capitalism exploits the masses and coerces them to ignore their own best interest(that's literally what it says!).
Probably worth reading, but not a high priority. The Penguin edition is compact and affordable, but the B&W images are so small that much of the value of the work is lost--You can't see details of the art being reproduced.
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