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John Berger's "Ways Of Seeing" And Mystification Essay

¶ … John Berger's "Ways Seeing" Chapter One, focus idea mystification. "Ways of Seeing" - mystification

John Berger's book "Ways of Seeing" is based on a television series issues in 1972 by the BBC and is generally meant to discuss with regard to art and to how society perceives this concept. Individuals are likely to benefit as a consequence of reading the book because it provides them with the opportunity to look at matters from a different angle. Berger wants readers to gain a more complex understanding of art in order for them to be able to know how to distinguish between real art and what the social order is inclined to identify as art. The writer emphasizes that the meaning of many works of art is mystified by the fact that the general public came to relate to them as being different from how they really are.

Chapter one in "Ways of Seeing" is focused on how people see first and then concentrate on trying to find explanations for what they see. Seeing is eventually influenced by how people perceive a particular concept, as it is only by providing a definition of an idea that individuals come to associate an image with it. Berger practically provides his readers with the opportunity to understand that seeing is an objective act while comprehending is an objective act. By knowing that seeing is subjective and that others also see, individuals come to accept that other people are probable to look at life from a different perspective and that it would be in society's best interest to reach common ground concerning particular concepts.

Art is a very complex subject and in order to be able to comprehend its intricateness, a person first needs to acknowledge...

Furthermore, its appreciation comes from how people see it, thus meaning that it can be interpreted in a series of ways. It is thus difficult to relate to a particular work of art as being artistic in character, taking into account that such thinking can only emerge from a series of individuals expressing their subjective opinion concerning it.
When a series of individuals express a particular opinion concerning an object, others are also inclined to put across similar thinking. Across time, the masses have developed diverging understandings of ideas like beauty, reality, and form. This means that what people in the contemporary society might consider to be art is likely to have been considered junk if it were not for individuals in earlier times labeling these concepts as artistic.

It is intriguing to accept that "today we see the art of the past as nobody saw it before. We actually perceive it in a different way." (Berger 16) However, the fact that people understand art of the past by considering ideas that individuals in the past expressed with regard to it plays an essential role in shaping what art actually means. The fact that most individuals prefer to believe that they have the authority to interpret artwork makes it difficult for them to avoid being influenced by interpretations in the past.

Society uses art in certain cases with the purpose of putting across messages people want to express. The masses are thus influenced to develop a particular method of thought as a consequence of the ideas they are bombarded with. Art is basically an opportunity for people to be transported into the…

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Berger, John, "Ways of Seeing," (Penguin Adult, 25.09.2008)
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