Ways of Seeing | Study Guide

John Berger, a British painter, writer, and intellectual, created a four-part television series in 1972 to challenge popular conceptions of European art. He later worked with a team of consultants to turn the series into a book. Ways of Seeing combines written analysis and artistic reproductions to show how artworks—particularly European oil painting—say more about the past and the present than most observers realize. The book's assessment of artistic portrayals of female nudity influenced the growing feminist movement of the 1970s. Berger also uses art to critique contemporary advertising and make a powerful argument against the capitalist economic system. Ways of Seeing has become essential reading in art schools around the world.