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John Berger / Ways of Seeing , Episode 3 (1972) — Transcript

by Margarett Kime · 3,259 words · 515 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:17we look we buy it is ours ours to
0:23consume to sell again perhaps to give
0:25away more often
0:27ours to keep
0:33you can have that go to town
0:44see chic honey
0:53we look we buy and we collect valuable
0:57objects but the most valuable object of
1:00all has become the oil painting
1:10oil paintings often depict things things
1:14which in reality are viable to paint a
1:18thing and put it on a canvas is not
1:21unlike buying it and putting it in your
1:23house the objects within the painting
1:31often appear as tangible as those
1:34outside it
1:48if you buy a painting you buy also the
1:51look of the thing it represents
2:03and this
2:06that's 17
2:14paintings often show treasures but
2:19paintings have become treasures
2:21themselves art galleries are like
2:28palaces but they are also like banks
2:32when they shot for the night they are
2:35guarded lest the images of the things
2:37which are desirable are stolen the value
2:46of paintings has become mysterious where
2:49we ask ourselves does this value come
2:52from
2:57[Music]
3:07[Music]
3:10those who write about art or talk or
3:13teach about it often raise art above
3:16life turning it into a kind of religion
3:19in the first of these programs I tried
3:22to show how and why modern methods of
3:24reproduction and communication like
3:25color photography like television have
3:28theoretically changed the meaning of the
3:30visual art of the past demystifying it
3:32and making it secular but mostly those
3:37who use these new methods of
3:39reproduction and communication those who
3:41write books or make television programs
3:43about art tend to cling to the old
3:46approach art remains something sacred a
3:50love of art seems automatically to be
3:54offered as a sublime human experience
3:59perhaps though we should consider this
4:02historical record two films of to
4:05concerts given in Britain and Germany
4:07during the last war both films made as
4:10war propaganda to engender pride in the
4:14national cultural heritage the first
4:16shows a concert in London given by Mara
4:18Hesse
4:19[Music]
4:38the second shows a concert in Berlin by
4:41foot Wagner
4:43[Music]
4:49[Music]
5:24if the experience of art is sublime it
5:28looks as though it can be sublimely
5:29independent of a lot of other values so
5:32perhaps we should be somewhat wary of a
5:34love of art you cannot explain anything
5:37in history not even in art history by a
5:39love of art let us look at a painting
5:43whose subject is an art lover this
5:47picture which shows a 17th century
5:48patron surrounded by his collection
5:51tells us more about Europe and painting
5:53from the Renaissance onwards than
5:55hundreds of art books or essays on
5:56aesthetics what does it show
5:59a sort of man for whom painters painted
6:03their paintings
6:05what are these paintings before they're
6:09anything else they are objects which
6:12could be bought and owned unique objects
6:17a patron cannot be surrounded by music
6:19or poems in the same way as he is
6:22surrounded by his pictures does this
6:25special ownership of pictures engender a
6:28special kind of pride it is as though he
6:32lives in a house built of paintings what
6:35is their advantage over walls of stone
6:37or wood they show him sights there are
6:42many different subjects but what the
6:45pictures all have in common is that they
6:47are painted with oil paint for about
6:511500 to 1900 the visual arts of Europe
6:54were dominated by the oil painting the
6:56easel picture this kind of painting had
6:58never been used anywhere else in the
7:00world before the tradition of oil
7:03painting was made up of hundreds of
7:05thousands of unremarkable works hung all
7:08over the walls of galleries and private
7:10houses rather in the same way as the
7:12reserve collection is still hung in the
7:15National Gallery as we are normally
7:18taught to do we emphasize the genius of
7:21the few and concentrate only on the
7:23exceptional works we will misunderstand
7:24what the tradition was really about
7:27European oil painting unlike the art of
7:30other civilizations and periods placed a
7:33unique
7:33emphasis on the tangibility the solidity
7:36the texture the weight the gospel ility
7:40of what was depicted what was real was
7:43what you could put your hands on the
7:46idea that the thing is only real if you
7:48can pick it up maybe connected with the
7:51idea of taking a thing to pieces to see
7:53how it works at the beginning of the
7:56tradition of oil painting the emphasis
7:58on the real being solid was part of a
8:01scientific attitude but the emphasis on
8:04the real being solid on being what you
8:07could put your hands on became East
8:10equally closely connected with a sense
8:13of ownership these scientific
8:17instruments were used for navigation
8:19they were painted at the time when the
8:21world trade routes to Europe were being
8:24opened up by the heroic voyages which we
8:26learnt about in school
8:27bringing European civilization to the
8:31rest of the world it tends to be
8:35forgotten that these voyages were the
8:38start of the European slave trade and
8:40the traffic which began to siphon the
8:43riches of the rest of the world into
8:45Europe Christopher Columbus wrote from
8:48Jamaica Gold is a wonderful thing by
8:52means of gold one can even get Souls
8:55into paradise
9:02in 1519 Magellan set out to sail around
9:05the world
9:06he and an astronomer friend with whom he
9:08had planned a voyage were to keep 20% of
9:11the profits made and the right to run
9:13the government of any land they
9:14discovered in Concord this globe charts
9:19Magellan's voyage around the world
9:21beside it is a book of arithmetic a hymn
9:24book and a lute to conquer a land it was
9:28always necessary to convert it to
9:30Christianity the picture was painted in
9:341533 by Holbein it shows two French
9:38diplomats in London the picture is about
9:41science about navigation about diplomacy
9:43about power but in the way that it has
9:46been painted in the way that it has been
9:48seen what is it most about
10:00there is not a surface in this picture
10:02which does not denote wealth there is
10:04not a surface which has not been
10:06elaborately and skillfully worked except
10:13over our faces and hands every square
10:16inch of the canvas has been gone over
10:18numerous times by Weaver's embroiderers
10:22carpet mater's mosaic makers leather
10:24workers failures jewelers and last of
10:27all by Holbein the painter they are two
10:33men convinced that the world is there to
10:35furnish their residents in it the
10:38seafaring instruments have been placed
10:40on an Eastern carpet without the first
10:43the second would not be there implicit
10:46in the rise of European Christian
10:48culture was the destruction of other
10:50cultures but the Europeans saw it
10:53differently they believed that their
10:55civilization was in all respects more
10:57advanced than any other the African eels
11:02to hold up an oil painting to his master
11:05the painting he is holding depicts the
11:08castle above one of the principal
11:10centres of the West African slave trade
11:13many works of art in other cultures and
11:16periods have celebrated wealth and power
11:18gods princes and dynasties were
11:21worshipped but these works were static
11:24ritualistic hierarchic symbolic they
11:31celebrated a social or divine order
11:41the European oil painting served a
11:44different kind of wealth it glorified
11:47not a static order of things but the
11:49ability to buy and furnish and to own
11:54before the invention of oil painting
11:57medieval European painters often used
12:00goldleaf in their pictures afterwards
12:03gold disappeared from their paintings
12:06and was only used for their frames but
12:09sometimes the paintings themselves were
12:12simple demonstrations of what gold of
12:14what money could buy a certain kind of
12:17oil painting celebrated merchandize in a
12:22way that had never happened before in
12:23the history of art merchandise became
12:25the actual principal subject of these
12:28works eating is a pleasure but these
12:32paintings cannot be eaten they are a
12:34demonstration of something else first of
12:37all of the artists virtuosity secondly
12:40of the owners wealth
12:47livestock not animals in their natural
12:51condition but animals whose pedigree is
12:54emphasized and whose pedigree is a proof
12:56of their value whose pedigree emphasizes
12:59the social pedigree of their owners they
13:03are painted like pieces of furniture a
13:05table or chair with four legs objects
13:15objects which significantly enough
13:17became known as
13:26houses buildings not considered as ideal
13:30works of architecture is in the work of
13:31some of the earlier Renaissance artists
13:33but buildings considered as landed
13:36property portraits were equally
13:42important portraits of the owners the
13:45owners of the paintings and the owners
13:47of much else besides
13:59these paintings did not directly
14:01celebrate what was viable
14:03they were records of the confidence of
14:05those to whom ownership brought
14:07confidence those who could buy banquets
14:11horses Bulls houses hung on their walls
14:15generations of portraits painted to
14:18celebrate a continuity of power and
14:21worthiness there were hundreds of
14:25thousands of such portraits but those
14:28they depicted represented an exceedingly
14:30small fraction of the population the
14:35poor have neither animals nor portraits
14:37their lives are unrecorded but again the
14:42style with which the average portrait
14:45was painted reveals something about the
14:47basis of this confidence and of this
14:50so-called dignity of the sitter
14:58they were painted as though they were a
15:01strange mixture of livestock furniture
15:04and tailors dummies every portrait is a
15:10record which says I once existed and
15:13looked like this these portraits say in
15:18addition I was an object of respect and
15:22envy I had only to raise my hand to
15:26receive attention everybody's clothes
15:32indicate social status but the clothes
15:35and feathers and jewelry of these women
15:38make exaggerated claims it is their
15:43clothes not their faces which dazzled
15:46the faces of women in many european
15:49paintings are like the faces of swimmers
15:51in seas of silk and satin oil painting
15:55could paint these materials as they had
15:58never before been painted
16:01there were also paintings whose subjects
16:04were taken from classical literature
16:06subjects which today seem quite remote
16:09unsubstantial dreamlike but this wasn't
16:12so when the pictures were bought
16:14classical mythology was part of the
16:16specialized knowledge of the privileged
16:19minority and these paintings helped them
16:22to visualize themselves whilst
16:25displaying the classic virtues making
16:27the classic gestures the paintings were
16:31the settings for charades
16:33in which they themselves would play the
16:37props were given the spirit of the
16:40performance was left to the owners
16:42imagination
16:47the figures were like garments held out
16:49for the spectator owners to put their
16:52arms into and we're here the daughters
16:58of the family dress up as Grace's
17:01decorating hymen but the dressing up
17:04didn't have to be as literal as that the
17:10spectator wore the clothes and played
17:12his part just in imagination
17:25who would you guess she was meant to
17:27represent different painters see her
17:30differently but do these paintings have
17:34anything in common and if so what is it
17:40that they all convey
17:47these pictures are all from the National
17:49Gallery and are all of Mary Magdalene
17:52the point of the original story is that
17:56a prostitute so loves Christ that she
17:58repents of her past and comes to accept
18:00the mortality of flesh and the
18:02immortality of the soul in each case the
18:06way the picture is painted contradicts
18:09the essence of the story the method of
18:14painting the way of seeing can only
18:16envisage her as being before everything
18:19else
18:20take a bow the hypocrisy is sexual the
18:28title suggests sacred love the painting
18:32with title is alibi speaks of profane
18:34love alternatively she is simply a
18:39well-dressed eligible young woman the
18:43tangibility of her wardrobe the elegance
18:46of her presence is all it's a portrait
18:49that might have been painted for her for
18:50her future husband on the occasion of
18:52their betrothal what I'm saying applies
18:57least of all to landscape painting or to
19:00the great late masters of landscape
19:02painting like constable or Turner or
19:04money but even there in the development
19:07of landscape painting the Faculty of oil
19:10painting to celebrate property did play
19:13a certain role this is what Sir Kenneth
19:17Clarke says about games blur at the very
19:20beginning of his career his pleasure in
19:22what he saw inspired him to put into his
19:24pictures backgrounds are sensitively
19:27observed as the cornfield in which a
19:28seated mr. and mrs. Andrews this
19:31enchanting work is painted with such
19:33love and mastery that we should have
19:35expected Gainsborough to go further in
19:36the same direction but he gave up direct
19:39painting and evolved the melodious style
19:41of picture making by which he is best
19:43known now look at it another way the way
19:48I would use it from my argument
19:55they have become not a couple in nature
19:58as blue so imagine nature theirs is
20:01private land look at their attitude
20:04towards it the attitude is visible
20:12if a man stole a potato at that time he
20:14risk the public whipping the sentence
20:16for poaching was deportation without
20:20doubt among the principal pleasures this
20:22painting gave to mr. and mrs. Andrews
20:24was the pleasure of seeing themselves as
20:26the owners of their own land and this
20:30pleasure was enhanced by the ability of
20:32oil paint to render this land in all its
20:35substantiality the surrealist painter
20:40mag leet commented on this Faculty of
20:43oil painting the painted landscape
20:45stands in for the real one a number of
20:50great painters used oil paint to express
20:54their own highly personal and
20:56exceptional visions they in many ways
21:00contradict my argument
21:02they also contradict the tradition from
21:05which they sprang this picture by
21:08Lubin's celebrates the park and farmland
21:12surrounding the chateau he lived in but
21:15the Chateau and its owners are far away
21:18hunting is free the fields are golden
21:22the landscape is like a counterpane on a
21:25bed it is a painting which goes beyond
21:29its traditional category it is not a
21:32painting about a castle and its lands on
21:36the contrary it shows a world without
21:39scarcity a world of Plenty a world that
21:42is which contradicts the entire history
21:45of private property there's a painting
21:49of a woman by Vermeer which at first
21:52sight confirms everything I have said it
21:55would seem to be the ideal illustration
21:57of my argument she's weighing gold in a
22:01pair of scales or perhaps also weighing
22:04the pearls strewn on the table her
22:08interest is commercial
22:10in the way the scene is painted the
22:13substantiality and tangibility of
22:15everything is emphasized everything
22:18suggests the solidity of a Dutch
22:20middle-class home even the painting of
22:23the Last Judgement on the wall behind
22:24her a painting on the wall is a mark of
22:28prosperity but go on looking
22:38gradually the painting becomes more
22:40mysterious less easily explainable in my
22:44terms the light falls on her face on her
22:49fingers on the scales on the poles the
22:53moment has been preserved and as we
23:00realize that the way that it has been
23:02preserved we realize that like every
23:05moment it was under the peterboer it is
23:10as though she is holding the moment
23:12between her forefinger and thumb on the
23:16scales of the past and the future
23:19despite its apparent celebration of
23:22property this painting is about the
23:25mystery of light and time as we look up
23:28at the stars
23:37not for one moment would I deny or
23:40belittle the significance and
23:42achievement of paintings like these but
23:46we should not confuse these exceptional
23:49paintings and everything in the museum's
23:51everything said by art experts
23:52encourages this confusion we should not
23:55confuse such exceptional works with the
23:58purpose and significance of the general
24:01tradition let me show the difference
24:05again this time at the highest level two
24:11self-portraits by them grant one when he
24:15was young one when he was old but the
24:19difference between them isn't just a
24:21question of how age changes a man's
24:24character in the first painting
24:26Rembrandt used the style and methods of
24:29the tradition for their traditional
24:30purposes as an advertisement for the
24:33owners good fortune prestige and wealth
24:37in the later painting he has turned the
24:41tradition against itself all has gone
24:45except a sense of the question of
24:48existence of existence as a question
24:57intermittently the tradition can breed
25:00within itself a counter tradition but
25:03the basic values of the tradition win in
25:06the end
25:07this painting now has a fabulous price
25:10on its head perhaps three million pounds
25:12it has itself become a fabulous object
25:16of property of course a lot more can be
25:21said about European oil painting and I
25:22have said yet what I have tried to show
25:25is a fundamental part of the truth which
25:29is usually ignored we study other
25:32cultures far away as anthropology that's
25:36to say we study them from the outside of
25:39them purely according to their own
25:41explanations of themselves now if we
25:45look at the culture of the European oil
25:47painting in the same spirit leaving
25:49aside its own claims for itself I
25:52believe we will find that oil painting
25:54was before everything else a medium
25:58which celebrated private possessions the
26:04tradition of the oil painting has now
26:06been broken once and for all
26:08in some ways publicity has taken its
26:12place the sight of it makes us want to
26:16possess it
26:38and publicity is the subject of our
26:39program next week and the final part of
26:47ways of seeing is right here on BBC four
26:49tomorrow at half past seven next tonight
26:52stay with us as we prowl through Wild
26:54China
26:56[Music]
27:11those who write about art or talk or
27:13teach about it often raise art above
27:16life turning it into a kind of religion
27:19in the first of these programs I tried
27:22to show how and why modern methods of
27:24reproduction and communication like
27:26color photography like television have
27:28theoretically changed the meaning of the
27:30visual art of the past demystifying it
27:33and making it secular but mostly those
27:38who use these new methods of
27:39reproduction and communication those who
27:42write books or make television programs
27:43about art tend to cling to the old
27:46approach art remains something sacred a
27:51love of art seems automatically to be
27:54offered as a sublime human experience
27:59perhaps though we should consider this
28:02historical record two films of to
28:06concerts given in Britain and Germany
28:07during the 19th
28:16oil paintings often depict things things
28:20which in reality are Bible to paint a
28:24thing and put it on a canvas is not
28:27unlike buying it and putting it in your
28:30house the objects within the painting
28:37often appear as tangible as those
28:40outside it
28:54if you buy a painting you buy also the
28:58look of the thing it represents
29:09last war both films made as war
29:13propaganda to engender pride in the
29:16national cultural heritage the first
29:18shows a concert in London given by Mara
29:21Hess
29:22[Music]
29:40the second shows a concert in Berlin by
29:44foot Wagner
29:45[Music]
29:52[Music]
30:28we look we buy it is ours ours to
30:34consume to sell again perhaps to give
30:36away more often ours to keep
30:45you can have that go to town
30:56see see penny
31:04we look we buy and we collect valuable
31:08objects but the most valuable object of
31:11all has become the oil paintings often
31:25show treasures but paintings have become
31:30treasures themselves art galleries are
31:37like palaces but they are also like
31:39banks when they shot for the night they
31:44are guarded lest the images of the
31:46things which are desirable are stolen
31:55the value of paintings has become
31:57mysterious where we ask ourselves does
32:01this value come from
32:06[Music]

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