Ways of Seeing

Editor's Recommendation
1. A classic introduction to art that changed the way Westerners viewed art for generations. In 1972, the television series "Ways of Seeing," directed by John Berger, aired on the BBC. This program transformed the way Westerners viewed art for an entire generation. This book is a companion illustrated book of the same name. The concepts popularized in "Ways of Seeing" are an important tool for the general reader to understand and appreciate Western art. This book is not only a classic introduction to art appreciation, but also a must-read for researchers in related fields, with its discussions on artworks in the age of mechanical reproduction, women as objects of viewing, the tradition of oil painting, advertising, and capitalism.
2. Includes over 200 classic works of art history, authoritatively interpreted by one of the greatest contemporary art critics. John Berger was a British art historian, novelist, public intellectual, and painter. He began writing for the New Statesman in 1952 and quickly became Britain's most influential contemporary art critic. This book, featuring over 200 classic works of art and authoritative interpretations by John Berger, is a hardcover reprint worth collecting.
Introduction: Seeing precedes speech. Seeing establishes our place in the world around us. The gaze of others, combined with our own, assures us of our place in the visible world. But when images finally replace words, filling every space within our sight, how can we see without getting lost again?
This book explores artworks in the age of mechanical reproduction, women as subjects of viewing, the tradition of oil painting, advertising, and capitalism. Illustrated with over 200 classic images, this, along with the BBC documentary of the same name, transformed the way an entire generation of Westerners viewed things. It is also undoubtedly applicable to today's mobile phone screens and street billboards. From the perspective of its in-depth exploration and popularization of visual culture, this book complements Sir Robert Gombrich's most outstanding works.
I admire and love the work of John Berger. He writes about what truly matters in the world, not just what comes to mind. I consider him the pre-eminent contemporary English-language writer; no one since D.H. Lawrence has so engaged the world of feeling and imbued it with the same conscientious urgency. He is a remarkable artist and thinker. He may be less poetic than Lawrence, but he is more astute, more attentive to public values, and possesses a greater sense of dignity and integrity. He is a remarkable artist and thinker.
—Susan Sontag. His tireless voyeurism isn't solely directed at photography and painting, but rather at the uncanny nature of seeing. In all the literature we might explore on seeing, it's rare to find such captivating texts. These effectively dissolve the noble barriers imposed by professional historiography on classical painting, freeing photography from excessive image theory, restoring it to its familiar form of visual reading. Reading Berger will constantly resonate with readers' own similar wonder and experience, elevating our sympathy to a conscience.
Chen Danqing: Putting aside ideological positions, Berger is currently a must-read in several fields. For example, in art theory and art history, can you avoid reading Ways of Seeing and The Success and Failure of Picasso? If you study photography, can you avoid reading Another Way of Telling? If you enjoy contemporary English literature, you'll undoubtedly read reviews of his new novel in major book review journals. Even more fascinating, even a casual essay he wrote about animals is considered one of the founding documents of the emerging field of cultural studies, "Animal Studies." Taken together, he is, like Susan Sontag, a most original and influential public intellectual. Though he works outside the academy and doesn't follow academic formats, he has created concepts that would be impossible for professors at prestigious universities to come up with in their lifetimes. Furthermore, he writes beautifully and has a wide readership. Conversely, the term "public intellectual" is also very popular in China today, but shamefully, we seem to have no one who can match Berger's caliber, no one who possesses such intellectual creativity.
——Leung Man-tao

2015-07-01

广西师范大学出版社

240

9787549558575