Ellen Tannam remembers the late, great artist, critic and writer John Berger, who passed away last week.
'When art is made new, we are made new with it. We have a sense of solidarity with our own time, and of psychic energies shared and redoubled, which is just about the most satisfying thing that life has to offer.' -John Berger
For many, John Berger was a man who forged a path to help dismantle the notion of art being something for an elite few. The 90-year-old artist, critic and writer, who passed away on January 2nd in Paris, leaves behind a rich and noble legacy of compassion learning - and a disdain for exclusive cultural gatekeeping.
Born in Stoke Newington, London in 1926, Berger served in the British Army for several years before beginning his studies at art college. Following several years as a working artist and later an art teacher, Berger took up the post of art critic for The New Statesman in the 1950s, writing essays on everything from politics to public swimming pools. His work was always grounded in the experiences he shared with others and this informed his work in criticism and cultural theory in a pivotal way.
His most well-known work, the 1972 BBC2 documentary series Ways Of Seeing, directed by Mike Dibb, examined and criticised the established Western perception of art at the time. He argued that the way a work of art was perceived differed depending on the person who was perceiving it, and that your own ideology and background guided your absorption of cultural artefacts. The accompanying book of the same title is a ubiquitous reading list choice for many third level students of arts and humanities. The modern interrogation of centuries-old oil paintings was a milestone in cultural theory.
It’s his writing in the depiction of women in art that is most enduring. Berger argues that the systemic objectification of women in visual art has continued from the oil paintings of centuries past, into the films and advertisements of recent times. Berger sums up the inherent hypocrisy in images of women created for the patriarchal male gaze:
'You painted a naked woman because you enjoyed looking at her, put a mirror in her hand and you called the painting “Vanity,” thus morally condemning the woman whose nakedness you had depicted for you own pleasure.’
With Ways Of Seeing, Berger popularised the attitude that art should be for all. This was no doubt governed by his notably Marxist outlook on life. He believed that the enjoyment and appreciation of art should not be saved for a privileged, pretentious few who thought their perceptions and tastes to be the standard. The book and docu-series created a thoughtful and perceptive gateway for many people who credit it for their interest in examining all visual art with a critical eye, whether it’s a Renaissance oil painting or a new installment of Star Wars. His influence will be felt for decades to come.
‘We never look at just one thing; we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves. Our vision is continually active, continually moving, continually holding things in a circle around itself, constituting what is present to us as we are.’
