In the World of Art: A Drawing by John Berger
In the World of Art - draft 4
In the end of 1950’s the Pop Culture had just sprung off the new, hip, and trendy for of art; free trade was the new “it” and consumption was higher than ever (Trentmann). Among this new era of what is claimed to be the era of freedom, there was a man named John Berger who sat in front of a naked man, drawing frantically on a piece of paper that later would become/will become (jag vet inte vad du tycker ar bast?) the groundwork of his essay “Drawing.” As Berger, writing his essay from the perspective of an authentic artist, starts to examine the process of drawing from beginning to end, his work in Selected Essays will convey an author with divergent voices that will help us relate to the very abstract and complex ideas Berger expresses around the nature of art and the artist: we are travelling back in time with Berger to discover that due to the change in the social structure of society, art is not longer regarded for its beauty, but for it consumerist value. (Lita lang mening kanske?) And just as Berger infers that “for the artist drawing is discovery,” (10) the view of art will be uncovered for his readers. Nevertheless, an unavoidable confusion arises at while immersing oneself in Berger’s world: first and foremost the out-of-context experience one might perceive, and secondly, the lack of fully committing to the view of the world as merely looking at art. However, an unavoidable attraction to Berger’s work pulls his readers to the essence of his ideas, at it is among all these tangents, metaphors and strong opinions we find the true reward in Berger’s work: the historical evolution of art. When Berger in “Drawing,” writes about artwork of an object by combining an abstract and physical illustrations: he “dissects” the object “in his minds eye,” he claims that he as a drawer “felt [the objects body part] physically—as, in a sense, [Berger’s] nervous system inhabited [the objects] body” (13). This alienating experience is one
In the end of 1950’s the Pop Culture had just sprung off the new, hip, and trendy for of art; free trade was the new “it” and consumption was higher than ever (Trentmann). Among this new era of what is claimed to be the era of freedom, there was a man named John Berger who sat in front of a naked man, drawing frantically on a piece of paper that later would become/will become (jag vet inte vad du tycker ar bast?) the groundwork of his essay “Drawing.” As Berger, writing his essay from the perspective of an authentic artist, starts to examine the process of drawing from beginning to end, his work in Selected Essays will convey an author with divergent voices that will help us relate to the very abstract and complex ideas Berger expresses around the nature of art and the artist: we are travelling back in time with Berger to discover that due to the change in the social structure of society, art is not longer regarded for its beauty, but for it consumerist value. (Lita lang mening kanske?) And just as Berger infers that “for the artist drawing is discovery,” (10) the view of art will be uncovered for his readers. Nevertheless, an unavoidable confusion arises at while immersing oneself in Berger’s world: first and foremost the out-of-context experience one might perceive, and secondly, the lack of fully committing to the view of the world as merely looking at art. However, an unavoidable attraction to Berger’s work pulls his readers to the essence of his ideas, at it is among all these tangents, metaphors and strong opinions we find the true reward in Berger’s work: the historical evolution of art. When Berger in “Drawing,” writes about artwork of an object by combining an abstract and physical illustrations: he “dissects” the object “in his minds eye,” he claims that he as a drawer “felt [the objects body part] physically—as, in a sense, [Berger’s] nervous system inhabited [the objects] body” (13). This alienating experience is one