Kenneth Clark
Kenneth Clark accomplished the rare distinction of becoming not only one of the most highly regarded art critics, but one of the most popular, as well. Born in 1903, Clark’s first employment in the arts was working for the well known critic Bernard Berenson. On his own, Clark created the first comprehensive catalogue of the works of Leonardo de Vinci. After a short stint as the Keeper of the Department of Fine Arts at the Ashmolean Museum of Oxford University, in 1933 Clark became the youngest director of the British National Gallery. A lover of music, Clark brought concerts to the National Gallery, and later helped bring about the National Opera at Covent Garden. During the war, Clark oversaw the transfer of the National Gallery’s collection to caves in Wales for safekeeping. In 1945, Clark left the gallery for a Slade professorship of Fine Arts at Oxford, and to write and lecture on the arts. A champion, as much as a critic, Clark helped reveal the artistry in Botticelli, Henry Moore, Rembrandt, John Ruskin, and Graham Sutherland, among others. He became the director of Britain’s ITA, the country’s first commercial television network, and helped to create the British Arts Council to provide support directly to arts institutions. In 1969, Clark wrote and narrated the hugely popular Civilization series for the BBC, a survey of European art from the Middle Ages through the twentieth century. In addition to the best selling Civilization book from the series, his other books include Landscape into Art (1949), Piero della Francesca (1951), Moments of Vision (1954), The Nude (1956), and two volumes of autobiography. “I have not got a first class mind, only a love of art, a good visual memory and a certain amount of common sense.” Clark died in 1983.
