Bento's Sketchbook
Chapter 1 of Ways of Seeing by John Berger
ways-of-seeing.com
David Hockney would stress, with his characteristic directness, the importance of this process of reception and transmission: In one gallery they actually had a notice which said, ‘No Sketching.’ How obnoxious! I said, ‘How do you think these things got on the walls if there was no sketching?’ Hockney’s telling point is that it is not enough merely
... See moreRoland Allen • The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper: A New Statesman and Spectator Book of the Year
When we ‘see’ a landscape, we situate ourselves in it. If we ‘saw’ the art of the past, we would situate ourselves in history. When we are prevented from seeing it, we are being deprived of the history which belongs to us. Who benefits from this deprivation? In the end, the art of the past is being mystified because a privileged minority is strivin
... See moreJohn Berger • Ways of Seeing
Everything publicity shows is there awaiting acquisition.
John Berger • Ways of Seeing (Penguin Modern Classics)
The true value of unbaked scrawls and sketches and whatnot is as a window to an artist’s process. Process is an ugly-sounding word—pedestrian jargon for the inherently wondrous act of creation—but it describes a method by which a thing evolves, which has always had a hold on me.