Civilisations rightly unpicks that easy narrative. Clark told a simple story of the progress of western art to “the dazzling summit of human achievement” in the Renaissance followed by the uncertainties leading to “the chaos of modern art”. It’s a debate that has raged in recent decades, with the rise of “postmodern” visions, the deprecation of “grand narratives”, and the shift towards a more relativist appreciation of culture and history. If there is always more than one story to be told, if meanings are always contested, which story should we tell, and which meaning should we accept? Or must we simply live with the fact that there will always be a multiplicity of stories and meanings, and that we can never settle on one as being definitive, still less as “true”? Yet, strangely, there appears to be no acknowledgment of that debt.īerger’s approach raises profound questions about how we tell the story of art indeed how we tell any kind of history. “The history of art,” Mary Beard tells us in episode two of Civilisations, “isn’t just a history of artists… It’s also the history of the men and women who looked, who interpreted what they saw, and of the changing ways in which they did so.” The very title of Beard’s episode, How Do We Look?, echoes Berger. But as a means of understanding art, it is Berger’s Ways of Seeing that has shaped contemporary thinking. Must we simply live with the fact that there will always be a multiplicity of stories and meanings?Īs a model for documentary-making, Clark’s Civilisation became highly influential. At different points in space and time, and from different vantage points in any society, Berger insists, the meaning of the same work of art will necessarily be different. Meaning is not intrinsic but emerges only in the viewing. For Berger, the meaning and worth of art rests not just in the frame or the marble but also in the relationship between the viewer and the object. For Clark, every artwork embodies unique qualities and an inherent meaning that has to be drawn out and explained.

John berger ways of seeing bbc