#JOHN BERGER WAYS OF SEEING BOOK SERIES#

(Not long after Ways of Seeing, in 1974, he moved to a small village in the foothills of the French Alps, and started writing about Savoyard peasant life.) Still, thereвЂ™s no denying the charisma of Berger, who always considered himself a вЂњstorytellerвЂќ, rather than a critic. The success of the accompanying book, which is still in print, also ensured longevity for the series. Much of its power derives from images and sequences that Dibb, guided by BergerвЂ™s persuasive propositions, came up with and shot by himself.

#JOHN BERGER WAYS OF SEEING BOOK SERIES#

At a stroke, Dibb recalls, they вЂњabandoned the other ideas we hadвЂќ, and made this insight the focus of the inventive final film.ДЄccording to Dibb, Berger considered his scripts merely a вЂњbeginningвЂќ, and wanted the series to be a вЂњ50:50 collaborationвЂќ. While the third episode investigated links between oil painting and possessions, the series was missing a finale until Berger, travelling one Sunday on the Tube, noticed that, as Dibb puts it, вЂњyou can find many of the motifs of European painting echoed in advertisingвЂќ. The second part, exploring the representation of women in Western art, concluded with an innovative round-table discussion involving five women, including BergerвЂ™s second wife, Anya Bostock, a Russian-born translator and critic involved with the womenвЂ™s liberation movement. So, for the initial episode, says Dibb, they decided to turn the вЂњessenceвЂќ of that вЂњdenseвЂќ but вЂњoriginalвЂќ text into вЂњsomething playful and accessibleвЂќ, suitable for TV. The вЂњkey momentвЂќ, he recalls, was their realisation that nobody had popularised the ideas of the German critic and philosopher Walter Benjamin, whose important essay of 1935, вЂњThe Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical ReproductionвЂќ, had recently been translated into English.

Having joined the series as a researcher, Dibb quickly established a rapport with Berger, whose reviews heвЂ™d admired as a teenager вЂ“ and ended up directing the whole thing.

which won the Booker Prize a few months after Ways of Seeing went out. He was also finishing off his fourth novel G. By the time that Berger was offered a now-unthinkably вЂњopen-endedвЂќ commission of four half-hour films вЂњon themes of his choiceвЂќ, he had already, Dibb explains, established himself as an art critic, and вЂњdone a lot of stuff in the 1960sвЂќ for the BBC cultural programme Monitor. Recently, I spent a happy morning re-watching all four episodes to understand why, even today, so many of those who encounter it feel like theyвЂ™ve seen the light.ДЄlthough it is sometimes considered a riposte to Civilisation, Kenneth ClarkвЂ™s 13-part history of Western art which had been broadcast three years earlier, this isnвЂ™t how the series started out, says Dibb. Thankfully, Berger wielded his blade with an art thiefвЂ™s aplomb, and the sequence вЂ“ which was supposed to appear elsewhere until Dibb decided it should come at the start вЂ“ provided вЂњthe striking imageвЂќ, as he puts it, вЂњwhich everybody retains from the filmвЂќ.ДЇrom today, Radio 4 will mark the 50th anniversary of Ways of Seeing with a series of essays by five writers including Geoff Dyer, who describes it as a вЂњrevelationвЂќ that вЂњmade boring old paintings of men in ruffs look interestingвЂќ. вЂњBecause if John buggered it up, we couldnвЂ™t reshoot.вЂќ вЂњI remember the nervousness with which we approached that moment,вЂќ Dibb chuckles. This, we realise with a jolt, isnвЂ™t your run-of-the-mill arts documentary on the BBC.ДЄccording to its producer, Mike Dibb, who is now 81 and still making films, this вЂњprovocativeвЂќ sequence was the most вЂњdifficultвЂќ and вЂњexpensiveвЂќ of the influential series, which was presented by the motorcycle-riding Marxist art critic and novelist John Berger, who died, aged 90, in 2017. Instead of studying it, though, he produces a knife before confidently cutting out a rectangle of canvas and calmly walking away with the goddessвЂ™s head.

A man wearing a striking patterned shirt approaches what appears to be BotticelliвЂ™s Venus and Mars inside the National Gallery.

Anyone who has watched the television series Ways of Seeing, which was first broadcast on BBC Two half a century ago next week, will recall the shock of its opening sequence.

John berger ways of seeing book