Hello! For my Writing, Research, and Technology class we had to go visit an art museum and use parts of John Berger's commentary from his book "Ways of Seeing." You can find my project on my page entitled "History Within a Historic Town" or just click here to be directed to that page. After creating a website for that project, we had to present our discovery in class. Now, we have to blog about someone else's project. So here is mine.
First, I'd like to point you to Carly's page (found here). Her project is the one I will be blogging my comments for. Next, I'd just like to point out I hate blogging about others because I feel if there's something I do not agree with that they might feel I'm attacking them, which I am not. I hope, if anything, that I could provide constructive criticism. I adore Carly (and her work) and respect her as a classmate (and a person). I'm just going to apologize beforehand in case there's anything I might say that could possibly be miscommunicated and taken the wrong way. It is not my intention. So, with my anxiety kicking in as I am typing this, let me move on to my actual blog.
Carly went to Grounds For Sculpture up near Trenton, New Jersey. You guessed it! It's park with sculpture exhibits. Now, Berger's view in his book that we read for class was geared to more well-known and upscale art museums (as I had been made aware), not sculpture parks or the small town museum that I went to. But I think Carly and I can both agree that once read, Berger's book changed our way of seeing things, even at places like the ones we visited. We could see (maybe on a smaller scale) what he meant.
As stated in Carly's project, she had been there before as a little girl. Now, when she visited again some of the sculptures had affected her because of Berger's views on women in art being "Naked vs. Nude." A majority of the class picked that theme to write about for their project, but I think the sculptures Carly took pictures of were fascinating. The way she was passionate and affected now as an adult really made her presentation much more interesting than some of the others' (no offense to anyone because I thought they all were great!). You could tell the effect on Carly as she was presenting. Also, during her presentation there were more pictures of other sculptures that were really nice to see.
I saw two problems during her presentation in class. Well, more like one depending on how you view it (and here's where my previous apology comes into play!). If we view the two sculptures she pointed out as both nude, then I would have liked to see if there was a sculpture that would be considered naked to show us the difference of being "naked" versus being "nude." However, I could also make the argument that the sculpture "Part of Nature" by Seward Johnson could be considered naked, instead of nude which Carly had considered it to be (nude).
First, I'd like to point you to Carly's page (found here). Her project is the one I will be blogging my comments for. Next, I'd just like to point out I hate blogging about others because I feel if there's something I do not agree with that they might feel I'm attacking them, which I am not. I hope, if anything, that I could provide constructive criticism. I adore Carly (and her work) and respect her as a classmate (and a person). I'm just going to apologize beforehand in case there's anything I might say that could possibly be miscommunicated and taken the wrong way. It is not my intention. So, with my anxiety kicking in as I am typing this, let me move on to my actual blog.
Carly went to Grounds For Sculpture up near Trenton, New Jersey. You guessed it! It's park with sculpture exhibits. Now, Berger's view in his book that we read for class was geared to more well-known and upscale art museums (as I had been made aware), not sculpture parks or the small town museum that I went to. But I think Carly and I can both agree that once read, Berger's book changed our way of seeing things, even at places like the ones we visited. We could see (maybe on a smaller scale) what he meant.
As stated in Carly's project, she had been there before as a little girl. Now, when she visited again some of the sculptures had affected her because of Berger's views on women in art being "Naked vs. Nude." A majority of the class picked that theme to write about for their project, but I think the sculptures Carly took pictures of were fascinating. The way she was passionate and affected now as an adult really made her presentation much more interesting than some of the others' (no offense to anyone because I thought they all were great!). You could tell the effect on Carly as she was presenting. Also, during her presentation there were more pictures of other sculptures that were really nice to see.
I saw two problems during her presentation in class. Well, more like one depending on how you view it (and here's where my previous apology comes into play!). If we view the two sculptures she pointed out as both nude, then I would have liked to see if there was a sculpture that would be considered naked to show us the difference of being "naked" versus being "nude." However, I could also make the argument that the sculpture "Part of Nature" by Seward Johnson could be considered naked, instead of nude which Carly had considered it to be (nude).
Argument #1
John Berger states, "To be naked is to be oneself. To be nude is to be seen as naked to others and yet not recognized for oneself" (54). Carly points out that both "Part of Nature" by Seward Johnson and "Woman in Bathtub" by Patrick Strzelec are both nude. If the nude women is the object of the art then according to Berger, "She has to survey everything she is and everything she does because how she appears to others, and ultimately how she appears to men, is of crucial importance for what is normally thought of as the success of her life" (46). To put it simply, the women is in an unnatural pose and pleasing to man's eye. There's a purpose for her to be in the nude and that purpose is to, pretty much, make men lust after her. To be naked is for the woman to be in a natural pose, not aware of the exposed flesh. From the picture provided, I would argue that "Part of Nature" is naked and not nude because she looks like she is wiping away tears with one arm, but hugging herself with the other. She's sitting on a rock covering her "private area" with a towel. Maybe she is aware that she is naked, but she isn't trying to tempt the observer with her body.
Argument #2
Using the same Berger quotes as above, if "Part of Nature" is in fact nude (maybe we could tell if we could see it from another angle?) then I personally would have liked to have seen a sculpture that would be considered naked. Some people (especially those not really into art) can be confused about the difference between "Naked Vs Nude." If there's two examples of nude but none of naked, then how can one be able to understand the difference if they still don't understand after reading Berger's book? It took me a few times to understand what he was trying to say while I was reading it.
Like I said, I loved the examples Carly presented and I loved her presentation, but if there was any suggestion I could have given it would have been to maybe find a sculpture (if there was one) that represented "naked."
In conclusion, I hope that I have not offended anyone or made anyone mad through this blog post. As I stated before, that was not my intention. These are just my thoughts and I would be willing to discuss or hear any opinions you may have that I might not have seen pertaining to Berger or Carly's project (or presentation for my fellow classmates who was there for it).
Like I said, I loved the examples Carly presented and I loved her presentation, but if there was any suggestion I could have given it would have been to maybe find a sculpture (if there was one) that represented "naked."
In conclusion, I hope that I have not offended anyone or made anyone mad through this blog post. As I stated before, that was not my intention. These are just my thoughts and I would be willing to discuss or hear any opinions you may have that I might not have seen pertaining to Berger or Carly's project (or presentation for my fellow classmates who was there for it).
Works Cited:
Berger, John. Ways of Seeing.London, England: Penguin Books Ltd., 1972. Print.
Szabo, Carly. "Look at it This Way." carlyszabowrt.weebly.com. n.p. 26 March 2014. Web. 13 April 2014.