Analysis of 'John Berger, Ways Of Seeing'

Quotes:

• Page 7- Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognises before it can speak.
• Page 8- To touch something is to situate oneself in relation to it.
• Page 10- Images were first made to configure up the appearances of something that was absent
• Page 10- The more imaginative the work, the more profoundly it allows us to share the artist's experience of the visible.

On page 7, the text mentions a painting by Magritte called The Key Of Dreams. It comments on the 'always-present gap between words and seeing.'

The Key Of Dreams

What one must paint is the image of resemblance—if thought is to become visible in the world.

—Rene Magritte

"In Magritte’s work, The Key of Dreams, the artist successfully attempts to demonstrate that “seeing comes before words,” and that there is a gap between words and what we see since we cannot explain what we see exactly.  What we see and how we see it is reflected through our individual experiences and how we relate to what we are looking at.  In the painting there are four panels, each in which Magritte has placed an image above words.  In the first panel we see an image of a horse with “the door” written underneath.  The panel to the right of this depicts a clock with the words, “the wind.”  The panel underneath this one shows a suitcase with “the valise” written.  And finally, the panel to the right of this depicts a pitcher accompanied by the words, “the bird.”  It is interesting how Magritte has placed an image of something that is recognizable, and paired it with words that describe something else that is recognizable.  However, since we are not actually seeing it, only the words that describe it, in our minds we can imagine what color that door is, or what kind of bird is being referred to."