Customer Reviews:
 Worth Contemplating November 10, 2006
3 out of 10 found this review helpful
This is a hot little book well worth contemplating if you're aspiring to become a serious artist. For the student, novice artist, seasoned practioner or curious artlover, your money will be well spent to have this on your shelf.
 Dreck November 9, 2006
6 out of 67 found this review helpful
Dreck, dreck, dreck, dreck,dreck, dreck, dreck, dreck, dreck, dreck,more dreck, more dreck, more dreck, more dreck, more dreck, more dreck, more dreck, and more dreck, and more dreck, and more dreck . . . you get the idea?
 Really a bunch of claptrap August 16, 2006
13 out of 44 found this review helpful
After reading this iconic work, I felt as if I had been ripped off with only myself to blame. I should have known better. The book is SOOOOOOO 70's! I'll give it two stars simply because it's really so out-of-date it's almost campy.
Okay, early oil paintings depicted the upper classes with their "stuff" and the "stuff" of the upper classes. So? It's pretty elemental to figure out that those painters had to make a living and they painted for those who were able to pay them. Duh. Okay, women were depicted in oil paintings as possessions and, in turn, viewed themselves in the light of the value the possessor placed on them. Deep and enlightening, huh?
It gets worse. We get a healthy dose of the "capitalism is bad" philosophy and the hammering that advertising is meant to keep the masses enslaved to capitalism. Nineteen seventies style collectivism is so boring. Of course, Berger offers no alternative other than some passing reference to his vague definition of democracy.
Maybe it's just so out-dated, it's no longer relevant. Maybe it played better to the 1970's. Maybe we've heard this claptrap for so many years, it's no longer novel or meaningful. And, maybe, it's because we've matured enough to realize criticism without any offering of alternatives is simply disingenuous and superficial.
Not as out of date as some would have you believe July 31, 2006
22 out of 24 found this review helpful
Several other reviewers say this book is out of date. In some ways, yes. But some of the most important points of this book still seem valid.
Specifically:
1.) Art is an artificial market whose value is talked up by art historians and gallery owners.
2.) The depiction of the female nude in art has always contained a exploitative voyeuristic overtone.
3.) The measure of man's power lies in who they can have power over.
4.) The measure of woman's power lies in who can have power over them.
It's small surprise his opinions were buried by academia and the art establishment. These were never popular opinions, but taken in the context of art history and the art market they provide a great counterpoint.
Even now, this book is a great way to demystify the art market for the art student.
 Needs to be updated February 25, 2006
4 out of 8 found this review helpful
I read this book in college and enjoyed it very much . I returned to it recently and found it to be interesting, but a bit sophmoric. I realize that it's meant for a general audeince, but it still felt that I was being talked down to. With that being said, it still has some value for those needing an introduction to general theories of how we read art.
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