The life of pictures or the art of seeing
The life of images or the art of seeing (in the original: About Looking , 1980) is a collection of 13 essays and essays by John Berger , translated by Stephen Tree and published in 1981 , which were published between 1966 and 1981. The book has a foreword by Birgitta Ashoff entitled Von der Freiheit des Lesenden Blicks. Added via John Berger .
Berger comments on a number of artists and a selection of their works of art and uses these examples to illustrate his anti-traditional form of art criticism , in which he is not concerned with the discovery of timeless beauty, but with the contribution of art to the representation of social contradictions.
Berger sees himself in the tradition of the 1968 movement and is looking for ways of overcoming the view of art exclusively from an aesthetic point of view, as represented in contemporary BBC broadcasts by Kenneth Clark , a director of the London National Gallery .
method
In the last essay (“Feld”) he develops his theory of perception from the reflected experience of a walk. An initially incidental observation of sensual events above or in the vicinity of a field is expanded by the observer and the simultaneity of the events is used to construct connections and meanings. “The field in front of which you stand seems to have the same proportions as your own life.” This path from randomness via focus to expansion and construction of meanings is the model for his 12 previous case analyzes in which he describes his “art of See “exemplified.
Case studies
Berger's art criticism uses changing starting points for the construction of meanings. These standpoints, as random as they may appear from time to time, consistently lead to judgments worth discussing (“more or less unsuccessful”, “conformist”, scenes “like on a theater stage”) and create possible spaces of meaning. In doing so, he demonstrates the openness of the production of explanatory references.
Berger examines brushstrokes, painting styles ( Jean-Francois Millet , Georges de la Tour , Francis Bacon , Georges Rouault ) and sculptural working methods ( Alberto Giacometti , August Rodin ) as well as the choice of subject ( August Sander , Millet, La Tour), but expanded these inherent approaches to biographical ( William Turner , Frans Hals , Rodin), ideological (Giacometti) and even a "geographical interpretation" ( Gustave Courbet ).
How undogmatic he is doing is shown, for example. For example, the fact that Turner relativizes the influence of his childhood and adolescent impressions, which Courbet uses to explain the materiality and density of the images. So he leads "a new conversation with himself and his surroundings".
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b John Berger: The life of pictures or the art of seeing. Translated from the English by Stephen Tree . With a foreword by Birgitta Ashoff: On the freedom of the reading gaze. About John Berger. 11th edition. Klaus Wagenbach, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-8031-1114-2 , p. 142 .
- ↑ John Berger: The life of pictures or the art of seeing . S. 56 .
- ↑ John Berger: The life of pictures or the art of seeing . S. 75 .
- ↑ John Berger: The life of pictures or the art of seeing . S. 111 .
- ↑ a b John Berger: The life of pictures or the art of seeing . S. 91 .
- ↑ John Berger: The life of pictures or the art of seeing . S. 86 ff .
- ↑ Birgitta Ashoff in her foreword in: The life of images or the art of seeing . S. 12 .