First Question: What are the implied reasons on
THE WHITE BIRD
BY: JOHN BERGER
• From the book The Sense of Sight (1985), a
collection of essays by John Berger, edited
by Lloyd Spencer and published by
Pantheon.
John Berger
• 1926-2017
• Author of several novels and volumes of art
criticism
Haute Savoie
• Located in the French Alps
➢ Berger discusses to us the tradition of
the people in this place where they could
create the white wooden bird and they
would hang it in their kitchen or in their
chapels
Constructing the White Bird
• Two bars of pine wood (six inches in length)
• Soak them in water for maximum pliability
• Carve – one piece for the head and body
with a fan tail – the other for the wings
• No glue is used, only 1 nail
• Weighing only 2 to 3 ounces
• Hung on a thread
➢ Berger mentions that it is absurd to
compare one of these birds to a Van
Gogh self-portrait or a Rembrandt
crucifixion
The White Birds
• Simple, homemade objects, worked to a
traditional pattern
• Yet by their simplicity, they look pleasing
and mysterious
• This man-made object provokes a kind of
astonishment: How on Earth was it made?
➢ One is looking at a piece of wood that
has become a bird.
➢ One is looking at a bird that is somehow
more than a bird.
➢ One is looking at something that has
been worked with a mysterious skill and
a kind of love.
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the creation of the white wooden bird?
• During winter, birds migrate and some of
them hibernate.
• To remind the peasants that there are birds,
they create the wooden bird.
• The wooden bird is now a sculpture so it is
now considered an art form.
Second Question: What is beauty and aesthetic
emotion and how are they related to art?
Paragraph 12
• On beauty – “the range of what a given
community finds beautiful in nature will
depend upon its means of survival, its
economy, it geography. What Eskimos find
beautiful is unlikely to be the same as what
the Ashanti found beautiful.”
• Beauty is relative.
• Beauty is in the eye and culture of the
beholder.
Paragraph 10
• “It is within this bleak context that beauty is
encountered, and the encounter is by its
nature sudden and unpredictable… Under
the fallen avalanche, a flower grows…”
Third Question: What is meant by “All the
languages of art have been developed as an
attempt to transform the instantaneous into the
permanent.”?
Paragraph 16
• The real birds outside can be freezing to
death, which means they have an end and
they can die anytime.
• However, the peasants created the wooden
birds, which can stay longer compared to the
real or living birds.
• Art can stay longer compared to mortals.
• Through art, moments which are
instantaneous become permanent.
➢ Photograph
➢ Poetry
➢ Songs
➢ And many more
 Fourth Question: What is meant by “Art does
not imitate nature, it imitates a creation,
READING THE IMAGE
sometimes to propose an alternative world.”? BY: ALICE GUILLERMO
• An artist is proposing an alternative world – Alice Guerrero Guillermo
a different world that he creates although it’s
still based on nature. •1938-2018
• The artist uses his own hands and that •Recipient of the Palanca Awards
becomes his own creation. •A renowned writer, researcher, art critic and
professor
Conclusion
➢Her essay is very important as we are provided
• Art can stay longer in contrast to mortals. with guidelines in analyzing or interpreting
• “The wooden bird is wafted by the warm air images, may they be from ads, paintings or any
rising from the stove in the kitchen where text.
the neighbors are drinking. Outside in minus Approach in Analyzing Art
25, the real birds are freezing to death!”
• Art should be placed in the context of
society and history because the two always
have a connection.
Basic Documentary Information of an Artwork

• Title of the Work

• Artist
• Medium and Technique
• Dimensions/Measurement
• Date of the Work
• Provenance

➢ Understanding a work of art may involve a

great deal of RESEARCH.
➢ The meaning of an important work can grow
with time, as viewing it becomes a process of
continual discovery.
Meaning of Art

• A complex of intellectual, emotional, and

sensory significations which the work
conveys and to which the viewer responds,
bringing in the breadth of his cultural
background, artistic exposure and training,
and human experience in a dialogic
relationship with the artwork.
• Artwork is a dialogue with the artists and
the world
• The world will respond to the message
coming from the artist
• A work of art may accommodate several
meanings so meaning is not absolute.

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 Four Planes of Analysis philosophies, and different cultures
and world views
• Basic Semiotic ➢ References and allusions to historical
➢ Visual Elements: line, color, etc. figures and events
➢ Should be viewed in a highly relational • Evaluative
manner and not isolated or ➢ As an art critic, find out what is
compartmentalized considered as a VALUE in your
nation. Is it depicted in the artwork?
Sources of Meaning
➢ What are the underlying social issues
o Psychological and physical/sensory conveyed in the work?
experiences which are commonly
shared
➢ Day and night, warmth and cold,
pleasure and pain
➢ Humanly shared experiences
➢ Examples:
- Night: Darkness, sorrow,
gloom, melancholy
- Dawn: Hope, bright optimism
- Line (Horizontal Position):
Sleep and rest
- Line (Vertical Position):
Strength and stability
- Line (Diagonal Position):
Action, movement
o The Socio-Cultural Conventions of a
Particular Society
➢ Meaning of color
➢ Examples:
- Black: Color of mourning in
Western or Western-
influenced societies; can also
be a symbol of elegance,
class, and sophistication
- White: Color of mourning in
many Asian societies; also a
symbol of peace and
surrender
-
• Iconic
➢ Look at the image itself
• Contextual
➢ Putting the word in context
➢ Relationship of art and society
➢ A broad knowledge of a society’s
history and its economic, political
and cultural conditions, past and
present is an advantage
➢ Knowledge of national and world art
and literatures, mythologies,

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 PAINTING ANALYSIS
Steps in Analyzing a Painting:

• View the painting.

• Spend a longer time looking at it.
• Jot down words, phrases, ideas that cross
your mind when viewing the painting.
• Find a unifying element out of these terms
that you’ve listed.
• Form your opinion.
• Compose a topic sentence.
• As an amateur critic, make this topic
sentence as your first sentence in the
paragraph.
• After formulating the topic sentence,
construct your succeeding sentences which
support your claim.
• Your supporting sentences should stick to
the topic sentence.
Topic Sentence

• Subject-Verb-Controlling Idea
• Controlling idea – your opinion, judgment,
view; it is not factual
Paragraph Writing

• After formulating the topic sentence,

construct your succeeding sentences which
support your claim.
• Your supporting sentences should stick to
the topic sentence.
• Remember the qualities of a good
paragraph.
➢ Unity
➢ Coherence
➢ Emphasis
• End your paragraph properly with a
conclusion.
• Review grammar and spelling.
Content of the Supporting Sentences

• In writing the supporting sentences, apply

the Planes of Analysis suggested by Alice
Guillermo in Reading the Image.

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