Steve Wood and the Commodification of the Sky

In chapter five of The Ways of Seeing, John Berger states that  “If you buy a painting, you buy also the look of the thing it represents” (83). He later goes on to state that of the genres that exist, “ landscape.... is the one to which our argument applies the least” (104). While this argument is agreeable, he further postures that these scenes defy possession” (105). It is here that the author looks past the uniqueness of the sky as it becomes framed by the land beneath it, as well as a key evolution that occurs in paintings as time moves forward. In both these times and in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, land was/ is traded like baseball cards. Due to this trading alone, landscape scenes do not defy possession, but rather act as an extension of Berger’s original argument. 

Fig. 1, Steve Wood, Manitou Snow Day, 2001, Acrylic on Panel. 

The main point in Berger’s argument against the possession of landscapes is the sky. Berger discusses how the sky is unable to be turned into a possession from which quantities can be made, while the other genres of painting he discusses, such as still life with foods, animal painting, and paintings of buildings, can (105). While the sky is unable to be created as a quantity that can be held, each view of the sky is immediately transformed by the space which surrounds it, giving each strip of land its own quantity of sky which no one else possesses.  Take Manitou Snow Day  by Steve Wood as an example (Fig. 1). The scene depicts a strip of Manitou Springs, Colorado on a particularly overcast and snowy day. This painting also shows homes in the foreground. It is instructive to note that the structures in front can be commodified, but even without their presence in the piece, the land, and yes, the sky, can be commodified. This particular set of mountainous hills in connection to the sky shown is indeed quite unique, and the purchase of the land in essence is the same as purchasing the sky behind it. The commodification of the sky is thereby created from the individualism of the surrounding space.

 

Further down the page, Berger also shows his belief that due to artists such as Turner and Monet, the landscapes have been “led progressively away from the substantial and tangible towards the indeterminate and intangiable” (105). In essence, Berger believes that the evolution of art is a hindrance to graspable commodification of the sky. On the contrary, the evolution of art has allowed for more perspectives than ever before, giving viewers a look at the inner souls of both people and places, and allowing the sky to act as a purchasable territory. In landscapes, this evolution is clearly seen in Wood’s piece, as the artist’s own view of the sky creates a most impressive commodification of this set area from Manitou. No other artist will see this space the exact same way, just as no other person can “own” the skyline other than the person who currently owns the land surrounding it.   While Wood’s painting uses acrylic, not oil paint as the author discusses in his prose, the argument still stands. Wood is still giving an impression of the sky, thereby allowing those who purchased his painting to also buy the look of the thing it represents while also making the sky profitable.

Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London: British Broadcasting Corporation, 1972. Print