Kenneth McKenzie Clark, Baron Clark, OM, CH, KCB, FBA (13 July 1903 - 21 May 1983) was a British author, museum director, broadcaster, and one of the best-known art historians and aesthetes of his ...view moreKenneth McKenzie Clark, Baron Clark, OM, CH, KCB, FBA (13 July 1903 - 21 May 1983) was a British author, museum director, broadcaster, and one of the best-known art historians and aesthetes of his generation, writing a series of books that appealed to a wide public, while remaining a serious scholar. In 1969, he achieved international fame as the writer, producer and presenter of the BBC Television series Civilisation, which pioneered television documentary series combining expert personalized narration with lavish photography on location.
He was born in London as the only child of Kenneth MacKenzie Clark and Margaret Alice McArthur. He was educated at Winchester and Oxford, and worked for two years with Bernard Berenson in Florence. He was appointed Director of the National Gallery at the age of 30 and remained there until 1945.
During the war he organized the war artists’ scheme, and with Dame Myra Hess was responsible for the National Gallery Concerts. He was Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford from 1946-1950. He became the Chairman of the Arts Council in May 1953, and was appointed Chairman on the setting up of the Independent Television Authority in 1954. In 1969 he wrote and presented Civilisation for BBC television (the rival of the ITA’s stations), a series on the history of Western civilisation as seen through its art. It was also broadcast in the U.S. on PBS, and gained Clark an international profile.view less