![john berger ways of seeing more books john berger ways of seeing more books](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ibuI5x-JL._SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_.jpg)
The notion of object and commodity is further extended to consider the nude in art, particularly female nudes, which are overwhelmingly of the majority. Berger argues that the medium of oil on canvas was the perfect vehicle for achieving a realistic representational medium that exhibited the power of ownership of objects and the representation of one’s place in the world. Berger links the dominance of oil paintings from the Renaissance on to the rise of capital and a desire to represent wealth and personal status. For instance, how cubism is inspired by the breakdown of the need for traditional representation, as well as the greater understanding of multiple perspectives the camera offered in the speed of its production.Ĭentral to the entire book is the notion of art as a commodity. The first essay lays the foundations of the book by relating how traditional ways of seeing were challenged by the invention of the camera and how it changed art. The book is divided into four written essay, interspersed with pictures, and three pictorial essays that combine traditional and modern images. Berger broke with traditional art criticism and considered art, particularly traditional art to begin with, through the lens of commodity. Having studied art at a high school level, and having taken some consolation in it during a poorly chosen business degree, soon to be abandoned, Berger offered a perspective not only on art, but my cynicism of capitalism and the commodification of workers. Ideas that seem to be common, or givens, at least in some sections of the community, now, were new to me then. For me the interest lay in its different perspective on art, as well as a means of understanding how women and men relate on the level of objects and consumers. The book had a big impact on me at the time, as it did the art establishment of the early seventies. Last year when I heard of John Berger’s death, I was reminded of this little book I read when I was at university.