John Berger's: Ways of Seeing - Entry by Cesar Alvarado

It is interesting to read an article that dissects how human beings perceive a piece of artwork based on the context in which it has been placed in by different generations. John Berger taps into our unconscious to reevaluate the information that was been handed to use throughout the years. Not long ago, I took my friend to the museum to look at their contemporary collection. He was not impressed at all and like many that I’ve heard before, he said, “My little sister can do this!” It wasn’t long before I began to explain the value of some of these paintings. I chose my words wisely and explained the monetary benefactor behind these pieces. The monetary value of the paintings caught his attention and then I proceeded to explain how Pop Art had revolutionized the way we perceived art. For example, I explained to him the meaning behind Andy Warhol’s “Campell”s Soup Cans” set, and told him that he really had no intention to explain his art work, but left it to the eye of the beholder. For Warhol, it was not so much about creating a Renaissance painting, which followed a specific set of guidelines used by everyone during those times. In fact, it was the contrary, he wanted to impact the viewer and make them question the philosophy behind it. To go even further, you didn’t even have to question it if you didn’t want to, you didn’t have to even see it. Pop Art is a perfect example of what Berger has written about in this article, except he used glorious masterpieces that have become cultural phenomena’s. Artist such as Leonardo Davinci and Vincent Vangough are ultimately seen like gods in their own genres. In a sense they are just as much commercialized as any Warhol piece.

Here is where Berger shines, and he questions the reason behind our perception of the visual content, which has been implanted in our psyche. Since we were in our tender years, we learned that the Renaissance era was classified as the great rebirth of human society. Great scholars, philosophers and artists came out of this era. In a sense it has been presented to us in relation to that of the Bible’s philosophies, and I say this because the Renaissance was all, if not mostly based on religion. The television was far from its invention and the Internet was not even a thought. The paintings of Judgment Day actually made people very afraid. The fear allowed great powers to manipulate and distort reality. The art was used as a sort of propaganda for the Catholic Church and it worked for many years. Today, somehow or another we have came across a piece of art that represents centuries of history, whether it was taught to us in elementary school or exposed to us in a snippet on TV. These small historical visual presentations have accumulated in our minds to the point that we have created an assessment of that image. We have created value, respect and sometimes, even worship. It becomes our own reality. Our perception has been manipulated with years of research that was given to us in textbooks, classes and home. When my friend and I were looking though the vast collection of Modern artists, I noticed that he became somewhat humbled about the whole situation. The more I conveyed the historical information about the pieces of art, the more his perception shifted. The museum itself was intimidating and the securities and rich couple next to us describing what they felt when they were looking at the painting, also helped.