![]() Ways of Seeing, which first aired in 1972, is an undeniably humble project: four 30-minute episodes, filmed with very little in the way of a production budget (the plain blue wall revealed in the opening gag serves as the background for most of Berger’s monologues). This visual doubles as a concise summary of the show’s premise: In art, and in life, things are rarely as they appear. As he removes the face of Venus, the hole left behind reveals a blue wall where the back of the frame should be we have not, in fact, been looking at the wall of a museum, but rather, a rudimentary set constructed inside a recording studio. On-screen, he pulls a box cutter from his pocket and begins slicing into the painting. “This is the first of four programs in which I want to question some of the assumptions usually made about the tradition of European painting,” Berger intones in voice-over. ![]() The BBC miniseries Ways of Seeing opens with a close-up shot of the British art critic John Berger standing in front of a large framed painting-Botticelli’s Venus and Mars-hanging in a museum. ![]()
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