Kenneth Clark: life, art and Civilisation

life, art and Civilisation

Plot

James Stourton's sweeping biography tells the story of the man considered the greatest art historian of his time, who would dominate the art world for more than half a century. Clark, at age 29, was the youngest-ever director of Britain's National Gallery, an art collector, art historian, social figure, author, patron of the arts, ladies' man and pioneer in the early years of television. Clark was also the creator of the most famous British television series ever, Civilisation, which in 1969 made him a household name around the world. Drawing on a previously unseen archive, Stourton reveals the formidable intellect and the complicated private man behind the figure, who came from a privileged background and was an inherent fascinator, wielding enormous influence in all aspects of the arts. He was befriended by both the Queen Mother and Winston Churchill and by many writers and artists; over the years they included Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, Roger Fry, Maurice Bowra, Philip Sassoon, John Betjeman, Graham Sutherland and Henry Moore. Clark drew into his circle a diverse group, some of whom he and his wife Jane would entertain at Saltwood Castle, their home in Kent. Always hidden from public view, however, was his first wife's alcoholism and his own womanizing; late in life he would marry Nolwen de JanzU+fffde-Rice. From his work with Bernard Berenson in Florence to being Keeper of Fine Art at the Ashmolean at age 27--by which time he had published his first book--to the directorship of the National Gallery during World War II, when he removed the art to safety in Welsh slate mines and kept up the spirits of the British populace during the bombing with concerts of German music, Clark revealed a precocious genius. Clark was prescient, too, in creating the thirteen-part series Civilisation: World War II and the Cold War convinced him of the fragility of the culture and that art, as a potent humanizing force, should be brought to the widest possible audience, a moral and social position that would inform the rest of his career, whether overseeing films at the Ministry of Information, as chairman of the Independent Television Authority, or in the 1950s as chairman of the Arts Council. With this book, James Stourton has produced a dazzling biography of a towering figure in the art world of the twentieth century, a passionate art historian of the Italian Renaissance and a brilliant communicator who, through the many mediums of his work, conveyed the profound beauty and importance of art, architecture and civilization for generations to come. --Adapted from dust jacket.