That person viewing it right after it was created will receive a completely different meaning from it than we would having the knowledge of the war.īut imagine viewing a painting that you know absolutely nothing about it, the history of it or the painting’s author, say a landscape painting that was set at night. Viewing a painting that was created during the Civil War era would affect us differently than someone viewing it during that time period because we know the outcome and all the events that took place during that time. The fact that we view art differently because of the history that we already know about it or its author is true. This allows the experience to be ruined before it even happens. We already have expectations before we even see the painting. John Berger states, “The way we see things is affected by what we know or what we believe” (97). The mystification that some experience when viewing art is brought about by others telling us that we should be mystified by these paintings. Ways Of Seeing John Berger AnalysisĮngaging in conversations with each work of art allowed me to dig deeper into the actual meaning, or what could be the actual meaning, of each work. Taking Berger’s suggestions I decided to take two works of art and analyze them in order not to be mystified by them any longer. Having a “conversation” with the painting can allow us to think of things that we would not have thought of otherwise. Asking the right questions can reveal facts about the painting that one may not have known otherwise.