Sir Kenneth Clark: Portrait of a Civilised Man - A Culture Show Special
- Episode aired May 31, 2014
YOUR RATING
Photos
David Attenborough
- Self - BBC2 Controller, 1965-1969
- (as Sir David Attenborough)
Kenneth Clark
- Self
- (archive footage)
Michael Dibb
- Self - Producer, Ways of Seeing
- (as Mike Dibb)
Storyline
Featured review
Comprehensive Portrait of a True Renaissance Man
Sir Kenneth Clark was a true Renaissance man, in the sense that he seemed to have his fingers in so many pies at the same time. Appointed Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum Pictures and Keeper of the King's Pictures at a young age, he went on to run the National Gallery during wartime, and become the patron of artists such as John Piper and Henry Moore, as well as radically increasing attendances even during air- raids. In the post-war period, he began a fledgling television career, first with the BBC and then with ITV, where he worked for Lew Grade for several years presenting programs on popular art history that might be best described as idiosyncratic. Returning to the BBC in the late Sixties, he made CIVILISATION for BBC2 - at the time one of the Corporation's most expensive series, it set the benchmark for future documentaries of its kind. This documentary argues that, while Clark might be seen as a representative of an old-established set of values - especially when compared with John Berger (whose WAYS OF SEEING was released three years after CIVILISATION) - his approach has come back into fashion in recent years, to such an extent that Tate Britain have now devoted an exhibition to his work as an art historian and patron. The only lacuna in this documentary is that it doesn't devote sufficient attention to Clark's work at the Arts Council of Great Britain, which would have been fascinating viewing.
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- l_rawjalaurence
- Jun 3, 2014
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