Key themes
- How we look at images — the social conditions of seeing
- Oil painting as a record of what could be owned
- Women as the object of the male gaze — seeing and being seen
About this book
How we look at images, and who benefits; a short, radical book that changed art criticism.
Published in 1972, Ways of Seeing began as a four-part BBC television series. It was a direct response to Kenneth Clark's Civilisation series and is now one of the most widely assigned texts in art criticism, cultural studies and media studies courses.
Discussion questions
- Berger argues that every image is a way of seeing shaped by assumptions — about gender, class, wealth. How does he develop this argument — and does his analysis feel as urgent now as when it was written in 1972?
- The book's central argument about oil painting: that it is fundamentally a record of property and what could be owned. How does Berger develop this — and does it change how you look at the paintings he discusses?
- The chapter on the female nude in Western art argues that women are depicted as seen by men — aware of being looked at. How does Berger develop this — and how does it relate to contemporary debates about the male gaze?
- Berger contrasts 'original works of art' with reproductions — the way mechanically reproduced images change what art means and how it functions. How does this argument extend to the digital age?
- Ways of Seeing began as a BBC television series. What does the relationship between the TV programme and the book tell us about how Berger understood his audience — and about how arguments about art reach people?
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