Berger Essay

Natalie Abbott

Professor Eric Haagenson

English 110

16 September 2011

The Meaning of Art

Whether you are aware of it or not, paintings have the ability to speak to people. Although they may seem lifeless and still, when you really look at them, you can see they hold meaning. They are filled with millions of words waiting to be interpreted, waiting for someone to come along and really look at it to see what it truly means. Paintings are full of knowledge of the past and the present. They can take you back in time and tell you a story.

For me, personally, interrogating this painting was difficult. Through out high school I was not interested in art, I never took art classes and was not used to having to interpret or analyze different types of paintings. I never thought that paintings could speak to me, I just thought of them as artwork people enjoyed looking at. I never realized the history and significance of it. I looked at dozens of different paintings, trying to find one that actually spoke to me. At first, I didn’t know what questions to ask to really understand a painting. As I re-read Berger’s essay and looked at different types of paintings, I realized that I needed to look beyond the surface of a painting to truly grasp the concept the artist is presenting.

To get a certain painting to speak, you need to interrogate it and ask it questions to find out what the meaning is. You need to ask it questions like: what is the setting and why is it important to this particular painting? What are the objects in this painting and what do they each represent? The color and lighting of a painting may answer lots of questions about its mood and what it means. You need to dig deep and really focus on what the painter is trying to get across. The only way to get this painting to speak to you is to look at it from every angle and viewpoint and pay attention to all the details the painter wants to display.

When I saw the painting, The Persistence of...