Ways Of Seeing

John Berger (5 November 1926–2 January 2017) was a British artist and writer. Ways of Seeing is a beloved classic of art theory and education, taught widely in Western universities.

Berger formally instantiates his persona as one that is inviting, populist, and gracious through his casual, inviting, and conversational writing style, which seems to purposefully eschew heavy-handed and inscrutable academic jargon. Never condescending or superior, Berger is nonetheless able to render incisive, complex, and nuanced theoretical insights that crackle with passion and immediacy. And, when it comes to critiquing capitalism and the ruling class, he does not mince words.

Ultimately, he forms his authorial persona in the previously-articulated ways in order to empower and appeal to his reader, whom he seems to conceptualize as a member of the working class who could be an art student or scholar just as easily as he or she could be someone completely uninterested in art. At its heart, Ways of Seeing is an understated manifesto and a call to arms. Through it, Berger expresses the deep sense of indignity at the injustice that is being perpetuated by the ‘privileged minority’—or the ‘ruling class’—under capitalism.