Ways of Seeing Part 1

The introduction to the first episode of Ways of Seeing shows a mop-topped John Berger cutting into Botticelli s 15th century painting Venus and Mars. Over the sound of ripping canvas, he calmly explains what he plans to do during the course of his upcoming series: ... I want to question some of the assumptions usually made about the tradition of European painting. Through both word and gesture, he makes clear his intention to deconstruct images in order to analyze them.