Profile of Kenneth Clark on Famous Like Me

Kenneth McKenzie Clark, Baron Clark of Saltwood (also, Sir Kenneth Clark) (July 13, 1903 – May 21, 1983) was a British author, museum director, broadcaster, and the most famous art historian of his generation.

Clark was born in London, the only child of Kenneth MacKenzie Clark and Margaret Alice, a wealthy Scottish family with roots in the textile trade (the "Clark" in Coats & Clark threading). Kenneth Clark the elder was reputed to be the legendary "Man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo."

He was educated at Winchester College and Trinity College, Oxford, where he studied the history of art. In 1927 he married a fellow Oxford student, Elizabeth Jane Martin. The couple had three children: Alan, in 1928, and twins Colette (known as Celly) and Colin in 1932.

An admirer of Ruskin and a protégé of the most influencial art critic of the time, Bernard Berenson, Clark quickly became the British art establishment's most respected æsthetician. After a stint as fine arts curator at Oxford's Ashmolean Museum, Clark was appointed, in 1933, director of the National Gallery, at age 31 the youngest person ever to hold the post. The following year he also became Surveyor of the King's Pictures, a post he held until 1945. He was a controversial figure however, in part due to his distaste for much of modern art. Nevertheless, he was an influential supporter of modern sculptor Henry Moore and, as Chairman of the War Artists committee, ensured that Moore found work. In 1946 he resigned his directorship in order to devote more time to writing. Between 1946 and 1950 he was Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford. He also served as Chairman of the Arts Council of Great Britain and had a major role in the art program of the Festival of Britain.

He was created Knight Commander of the Bath in 1938, was knighted in 1953, and made a Companion of Honour in 1959. In 1955 he purchased Saltwood Castle in Kent.

An indefatigable lecturer in both academic and broadcast settings, Kenneth Clark's stated goal was to make art more accessible to the masses. He was one of the founders, in 1954, of the Independent Television Authority, serving as its governor until 1957, when he moved to ITA's rival BBC. In 1966 he wrote and produced Civilisation for BBC television, a series on the history of Western civilisation as seen through its art. When it was broadcast in 1969, Civilization was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic, catapulting Clark to international fame.

He was Chancellor of the University of York from 1967-78 and a trustee of the British Museum. Clark was awarded a life barony in 1969, taking the title Lord Clark of Saltwood (Private Eye nicknamed him Lord Clark of Civilization). He also received the Order of Merit in 1976.

Jane died in 1976 and the following year Clark married Nolwen de Janzé-Rice, former wife of Edward Rice and daughter of the Count of Janzé, both wealthy landowners. Kenneth Clark died in Hythe after a short illness in 1983.

His elder son, Alan Clark, became a prominent Conservative MP.

Quotes

• "Opera, next to Gothic architecture, is one of the strangest inventions of Western man. It could not have been foreseen by any logical process."

• "People sometimes tell me that they prefer barbarism to civilization. I doubt if they have given it a long enough trial. Like the people of Alexandria, they are bored by civilisation; but all the evidence suggests that the boredom of barbarism is infinitely greater."

• "It is lack of confidence, more than anything else, that kills a civilisation. We can destroy ourselves by cynicism and disillusion, just as effectively as by bombs."

Books

• The Gothic Revival (1928)
• Catalogue of the Windsor Leonardo Drawings (1935)
• Leonardo da Vinci (1939)
• Piero della Francesca (1951)
• Landscape into Art (1949)
• The Nude (1956)
• Looking at Pictures (1960)
• Rembrandt and the Italian Renaissance (1966)
• Civilisation (1969)
• Blake and Visionary Art (1973)
• Another Part of the Wood (1974)
• The Other Half (1977)
• Feminine Beauty (1980)
• The Romantic Rebellion (1986)

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