ABSTRACT
In Ways of Seeing, John Berger highlights the importance of how seeing may be affected by a variety of factors, and as such there is no one true way of seeing something. Ways of Seeing was a groundbreaking and controversial work of art criticism and visual culture when it was published in England in 1972. Berger's professional life was shaped by a series of talks on art for the BBC and his writings on art criticism for the New Statesman. The "mystification" of art and Berger's Marxist ideas shaped the ways he responded to the visual culture of his era. From 1952 to 1962, Berger worked as an art critic for the New Statesman, a left-wing periodical writing in favor of social realism and exploring Marxist ideas. Berger's experience during this period of rigid conformism shaped Ways of Seeing, in which he aims to speak the truth and offer an alternative view of the art world irrespective of social class.
