ABSTRACT
Many of the themes John Berger addresses in Ways of Seeing are particular to the way we understand and look at paintings. At its core, the book is a personal reaction to the enormous impact of publicity, television, image reproduction, capitalism, and a discussion of gender and ethnicity. At the time of publication, much debate in Western art history centered on the connoisseurship and the interpretation of works accepted as masterpieces (painted by Old Masters). Some essays in Ways of Seeing indeed took inspiration from the work of others: Walter Benjamin's essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" informs Berger's explanations of how what we see is influenced by a host of assumptions relating to age, gender, beauty, and taste. Other essays in Berger's book were directed as a repudiation of the work of famous art critics: Berger challenges Kenneth Clark and his followers in dealing with the issue of ownership in connection with oil paintings.
