In 1972, British author John Berger hosted and narrated “Ways of Seeing,” a four-part BBC series. He made an eloquent case regarding art viewership as an experience, fusing market trends to personal experiences like morality, anxiety and desire. The broadcasts and book that followed are still considered some of the most seminal works on art ever created.
René Magritte’s “La clef des songes” (“The Interpretation of Dreams”), 1935, was featured on the cover of Berger’s book, Ways of Seeing, published in 1972.
Courtesy of the MoMA from the collection of Jasper Johns.
In the 44 years since the program aired, the discussion of what constitutes art has only become louder and more provocative. It’s a debate with many views.
3,279%
Increase in patrons visiting New York galleries per year since the 1970s
There are museums and galleries in every corner of the world. Criticism classes, theory classes and fine arts programs in every creative discipline are common university offerings. A global roster of biennials rely on a network of culture gatekeepers — curators — to select the most gifted among the new generation of artists.
Illustration by Peter Oumanski.
Berger photographed on set at the BBC, 1972.
Still image pulled from Episode 1, “Ways of Seeing.”
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JEFF KOONS
“Tulips,” 1995-2004,
Courtesy of Jeff Koons / Kunsthaus Bregenz, photograph by Markus Tretter Fotografie. -
ZINEB SEDIRA
Zineb Sedira, “Sugar Routes,” Courtesy of Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / DACS, London.
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DAN FLAVIN
Dan Flavin, “Untitled (to Barnett Newman) two,” 1971, Courtesy of Stephen Flavin/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; David Zwirner, New York/London
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RICHARD HAMILTON
Richard Hamilton, “Interior,” 1964-65.
Courtesy of R. Hamilton. All Rights Reserved, DACS and ARS 2016 -
ALEXANDER RODCHENKO
“Books” (The Advertisement Poster for the Lengiz Publishing House, 1924). Courtesy of the Estate of Aleksandr Rodchenko/RAO, Moscow/VAGA, New York
Then there’s the amazing range of fabrication. Art can be made from just about anything now. It used to be paint, clay, pencils and pictures. Now it’s become propaganda posters, newspaper clippings, neon lights, mountains of sugar, wind machines, stainless steel balloon dogs, frozen blood, consumer goods packaging, favela murals, graphic novels and shark heads in formaldehyde, just to name a few. These materials can provide more than a moment of aesthetic pleasure. They can amuse us, disturb us, confuse us, speak up against injustice and try to purge bigotry from our consciousness.
But this range, some argue, demands more of the viewer. The diversity has made viewing art more rigorous. As the late Arthur C. Danto wrote in “What Art Is,” the pluralism “puts great interpretive pressures on viewers to grasp the way the spirit of the artist undertook to present the idea.”
New Ways of Seeing seeks to make fresh and meaningful contributions to the topics presented here. Fittingly, it has been commissioned by the leading house of luxury, Tiffany & Co., which has been an advocate for the arts since the 1800s. Its founder, Charles Lewis Tiffany, helped start the New York Society of Fine Arts and served as an original trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In the 1950s, the artists Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, under their commercial entity Matson Jones, were commissioned to create windows for Tiffany & Co. Today, Tiffany & Co. continues to support of the arts, and will sponsor the next three Whitney Biennials through the year 2021.
In 1972, British author John Berger hosted and narrated “Ways of Seeing,” a four-part BBC series. He made an eloquent case regarding art viewership as an experience, fusing market trends to personal experiences like morality, anxiety and desire. The broadcasts and book that followed are still considered some of the most seminal works on art ever created.
René Magritte’s “La clef des songes” (“The Interpretation of Dreams”), 1935, was featured on the cover of Berger’s book, Ways of Seeing, published in 1972.
Courtesy of the MoMA from the collection of Jasper Johns.
In the 44 years since the program aired, the discussion of what constitutes art has only become louder and more provocative. It’s a debate with many views.
There are museums and galleries in every corner of the world. Criticism classes, theory classes and fine arts programs in every creative discipline are common university offerings. A global roster of biennials rely on a network of culture gatekeepers — curators — to select the most gifted among the new generation of artists.
Then there’s the amazing range of fabrication. Art can be made from just about anything now. It used to be paint, clay, pencils and pictures. Now it’s become propaganda posters, newspaper clippings, neon lights, mountains of sugar, wind machines, stainless steel balloon dogs, frozen blood, consumer goods packaging, favela murals, graphic novels and shark heads in formaldehyde, just to name a few. These materials can provide more than a moment of aesthetic pleasure. They can amuse us, disturb us, confuse us, speak up against injustice and try to purge bigotry from our consciousness.
New Ways of Seeing seeks to make fresh and meaningful contributions to the topics presented here. Fittingly, it has been commissioned by the leading house of luxury, Tiffany & Co., which has been an advocate for the arts since the 1800s. Its founder, Charles Lewis Tiffany, helped start the New York Society of Fine Arts and served as an original trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In the 1950s, the artists Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, under their commercial entity Matson Jones, were commissioned to create windows for Tiffany & Co. Today, Tiffany & Co. continues to support of the arts, and will sponsor the next three Whitney Biennials through the year 2021.