I tried to view the picture as if I was someone from another state who has never seen or heard of Quinnipiac University before and would not know the first thing about its campus or even where it was located. Viewing the Quinnipiac campus photo the way I viewed the night time landscape painting was more difficult because I already knew information about the setting and the person who took the picture (myself). Demystifying this painting made me realize the many reasons for which it could have been produced. Either way it was different from the feeling I got from looking at the picture of the Quinnipiac campus.
On the other hand it could have been symbolizing some sort of sadness that the author was feeling, a feeling of loneliness and isolation because of something that happened to him/her. Perhaps they missed their hometown and it was just a memory to them fading away into the darkness of their minds.
I felt that the author could have had solemn feelings when painting this. Maybe the blurriness of the painting had a greater meaning and a greater purpose than just making it look more interesting. Trying to think of the thoughts and feelings that were going through the painter’s mind at the time of the creation of the piece, I tried and placed myself in their shoes. The clarity gives off a multiple meanings and feelings to whoever is viewing it.
The picture of the Quinnipiac Campus is much clearer than that of the night landscape painting. One of the major differences that I noticed was the clarity of the pictures. Not much can be made out specifically expect for the hills in the background and a few lights scattered around giving the idea of a city or a small town. In this painting it is night time and very foggy. The landscape photo of the Quinnipiac campus pictures the fountain with geese along with parts of sleeping giant and a partial view of the quad on a clear autumn day while the photo of the other landscape painting has a completely different setting. Taking the landscape photo from the Quinnipiac campus and comparing it to the reproduction of a landscape painting I found searching the internet brought out many new ideas and meanings about both that I would have never seen before if it had not been for the suggestions of John Berger. 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.
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