Interesting program John Berger - Ways of Seeing.
John berger opens by saying "...it isn't so much the paintings themselves which I want to consider as the way we now see them, now in the second half of the 20th century, because we see these paintings as nobody saw them before. If we discover why this is so we will also discover something about ourselves and the situation in which we are living"
Initially we have an artist who is commissioned to create a painting, when originally created there is a place for this painting, be it on a mansions winding staircase, a cathedral, office building, library, etc. So the painting is commissioned and the painter creates his work of art in and around where it is to be hung, they are one and the same.
"Its uniqueness is part of the uniqueness of the single place where it is" - John Berger
Take the religious Icon as an example, worshippers used to travel thousands of miles to look upon the painting, not seeing the artwork but seeing god within it and all around the painting.
Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel Ceiling. The original painting was commissioned by Pope Julius II, it is almost 70 feet above the chapel floor, its sides are curved and it is 5,800 square feet. it took michelangelo 4 years to paint. It has nine central panels which tell us the tale of the early history of our world, the creation of Adam, adam and Eve, the life of Noah. It is be a sight to behold, too be in complete awe of Michelangelos' artistry, too see his work in situ, to and feel soak in the atmosphere of the chapel.
Now in the 21st century the days of pilgrimage are gone, we can see these images anytime we desire, we only have to go on the internet and Google the artist or artwork and it is immediately there, framed within our computer screen, in the confines of our own home. Photography changed this by making art accessible to everyone. We no longer travel to the paintings to see them in their original setting, the camera has reproduced them, and we can now see them in millions of different places, each with its own setting. Once they are in a new setting their context changes, it is now used in the context of your own life.
Here is another example Leonardo Da Vinci Mona Lisa:
Painted in Florence between 1503 and 1506, it is thought to be of Lisa Gherardini, wife of a Florentine cloth merchant named Francesco del Giocondo, it is believed to be of her because of an alternative title or this image "La Gioconda".The portrait was never given to the person it was commissioned for and leonardo took it to France, eventually it returned to Italy by Leonardo's student and heir Salai. ( It is not known how the painting came to be in François I's collection.) Information taken from the Louvre website. It measures 77 cm × 53 cm which is comparatively small in how it is perceived by myself, someone who has never laid eyes on the Mona Lisa as a work of art.
In 1962 this paintings insurance value was $100,000,000. which equates to $780,000,000 or In Pounds sterling 470,130,000 today making it priceless. It hangs in a room by itself in the Louvre. Today its meaning has changed purely because of its price, its market value. It has survived time, its genuine and valuable.
"...but only if art is stripped of the false mystery and the false religiosity which surrounds it. This religiosity usually linked with cash value, but always invoked in the name of culture and civilisation, is in fact a substitute for what the paintings lost when the camera made them reproducible" - John Berger
In moving a painting from it intended original place and reproducing the image for commercial reasons, we change the message and the context the artist originally intended.
We can isolate certain parts of a painting:
Here again is Michelangelo's The creation of Adam, one of many fresco's painted on the Sistine Chapel. yet this image alone has been isolated and reproduced many times and for many different themes.
all the above are copies of the original painting, yet each has a new context, meaning; meaning is interchangeable and can be used for many different things and can be manipulated. The above image is no longer unique, its uniqueness is lost by reproduction. Images can now be used, to infer different meaning, experience. The above are now no longer paintings but representations and mere objects.
very interesting analogy of how our perceptions of a painting can be changed through our own subjectivity and context to the point of ambiguity.
John berger opens by saying "...it isn't so much the paintings themselves which I want to consider as the way we now see them, now in the second half of the 20th century, because we see these paintings as nobody saw them before. If we discover why this is so we will also discover something about ourselves and the situation in which we are living"
Initially we have an artist who is commissioned to create a painting, when originally created there is a place for this painting, be it on a mansions winding staircase, a cathedral, office building, library, etc. So the painting is commissioned and the painter creates his work of art in and around where it is to be hung, they are one and the same.
"Its uniqueness is part of the uniqueness of the single place where it is" - John Berger
Take the religious Icon as an example, worshippers used to travel thousands of miles to look upon the painting, not seeing the artwork but seeing god within it and all around the painting.
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| This is not the Sistine Chapel Ceiling. It is a reproduction, a photograph on Google. |
Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel Ceiling. The original painting was commissioned by Pope Julius II, it is almost 70 feet above the chapel floor, its sides are curved and it is 5,800 square feet. it took michelangelo 4 years to paint. It has nine central panels which tell us the tale of the early history of our world, the creation of Adam, adam and Eve, the life of Noah. It is be a sight to behold, too be in complete awe of Michelangelos' artistry, too see his work in situ, to and feel soak in the atmosphere of the chapel.
Now in the 21st century the days of pilgrimage are gone, we can see these images anytime we desire, we only have to go on the internet and Google the artist or artwork and it is immediately there, framed within our computer screen, in the confines of our own home. Photography changed this by making art accessible to everyone. We no longer travel to the paintings to see them in their original setting, the camera has reproduced them, and we can now see them in millions of different places, each with its own setting. Once they are in a new setting their context changes, it is now used in the context of your own life.
Here is another example Leonardo Da Vinci Mona Lisa:
Painted in Florence between 1503 and 1506, it is thought to be of Lisa Gherardini, wife of a Florentine cloth merchant named Francesco del Giocondo, it is believed to be of her because of an alternative title or this image "La Gioconda".The portrait was never given to the person it was commissioned for and leonardo took it to France, eventually it returned to Italy by Leonardo's student and heir Salai. ( It is not known how the painting came to be in François I's collection.) Information taken from the Louvre website. It measures 77 cm × 53 cm which is comparatively small in how it is perceived by myself, someone who has never laid eyes on the Mona Lisa as a work of art.
In 1962 this paintings insurance value was $100,000,000. which equates to $780,000,000 or In Pounds sterling 470,130,000 today making it priceless. It hangs in a room by itself in the Louvre. Today its meaning has changed purely because of its price, its market value. It has survived time, its genuine and valuable.
"...but only if art is stripped of the false mystery and the false religiosity which surrounds it. This religiosity usually linked with cash value, but always invoked in the name of culture and civilisation, is in fact a substitute for what the paintings lost when the camera made them reproducible" - John Berger
In moving a painting from it intended original place and reproducing the image for commercial reasons, we change the message and the context the artist originally intended.
We can isolate certain parts of a painting:
Here again is Michelangelo's The creation of Adam, one of many fresco's painted on the Sistine Chapel. yet this image alone has been isolated and reproduced many times and for many different themes.
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| Ipad case. |
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| Purse |
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| Cufflinks |
"The art of the past no longer exists as it once did. It's authority is lost. In it's place there is a language of images. What matters now is who uses that language and for what purpose..." Berger (1972:33).
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