Contextual Studies 11/12/12

John Berger's "Ways of Seeing"

 

"John Berger's Ways of Seeing changed the way people think about paintings and art criticism. This watershed work shows, through word and image, how what we see is always influenced by a whole host of assumptions concerning the nature of beauty, truth, civilization, form, taste, class and gender. Exploring the layers of meaning within oil paintinga, photographs and graphic art, Berger argues that when we see, we ar not just looking - we are reading the language of image"

 

 

The relevance of Berger's work to my own research and practice is his ideas of the value of art, in particular the value of women within art and the ways in which they are portrayed and perceived by the viewer. I will look into his views on women being seen as objects within art, the concept of vanity ans in turn exploring the relevance of his ideals to that of the work of Jenny Saville.

10/12/12 Presentation research

My focus over the past couple of weeks since the hand in of the Studio Practice 1 brief, has been solely on the presentation for Contextual Studies: presentation date wk beginning Mon 17th Dec. This has consisted of reflecting back over the 1st essay draft and compressing my findings into a summary of what I have researched thus far.

Research has included

History of Contemporary Art

Origins of Conceptual art

Looking into the work of artist Jenny Saville

John Berger's "Ways of Seeing" and relevance to essay and argument

History and purpose of traditional portraiture and the self-portrait: what was its purpose and what did it represent?

 

 

I have also begin to research a theme and concept for Studio Practice 2. Throughout the project there will be a clear overlap between research into the theme of project and also the work carried out within my essay into the values of art and what exactly defines art, as art. I will be publishing my final ideas on the projects theme and concept later this week once further research has been carried out and I have more concrete idea of the direction I wish to take.