The Other Half: A Self Portrait

by Kenneth M. Clark

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 aestheticians 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. This is a continuation (volume 2) of his autobiography.

Genres: Biography, Art, Memoir

259 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1977

About the author

Sir Kenneth Mackenzie Clark (1903 -1983) was a British art historian, museum director, and broadcaster. After running two important art galleries in the 1930s and 1940s, he came to wider public notice on television, presenting a succession of programmes on the arts during the 1950s and 1960s, culminating in the Civilisation series in 1969.

The son of rich parents, Clark was introduced to the arts at an early age. Among his early influences were the writings of John Ruskin, which instilled in him the belief that everyone should have access to great art. After coming under the influence of the connoisseur and dealer Bernard Berenson, Clark was appointed director of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford aged twenty-seven, and three years later he was put in charge of Britain's National Gallery. His twelve years there saw the gallery transformed to make it accessible and inviting to a wider public.

During the Second World War, when the collection was moved from London for safe keeping, Clark made the building available for a series of daily concerts which proved a celebrated morale booster during the Blitz.

After the war, and three years as Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford, Clark surprised many by accepting the chairmanship of the UK's first commercial television network. Once the service had been successfully launched he agreed to write and present programmes about the arts. These established him as a household name in Britain, and he was asked to create the first colour series about the arts, Civilisation, first broadcast in 1969 in Britain and in many other countries soon afterwards.

Among many honours, Clark was knighted at the unusually young age of thirty-five, and three decades later was made a life peer shortly before the first transmission of Civilisation. Three decades after his death, Clark was celebrated in an exhibition at Tate Britain in London, prompting a reappraisal of his career by a new generation of critics and historians. Opinions varied about his aesthetic judgment, particularly in attributing paintings to old masters, but his skill as a writer and his enthusiasm for popularising the arts were widely recognised. Both the BBC and the Tate described him in retrospect as one of the most influential figures in British art of the twentieth century.

Reviews

[Lobstergirl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clark's second memoir is perhaps not quite as sparkling as his first, but he still manages to entertain in his wry, detached, ironical style. No one delivers a backhanded compliment better. He may be the weepiest aesthete ever to maintain his heterosexual ranking, as well as the most uxorious of marital infidels. You get the definite impression that everyone in his circle would be helpless without servants and has never so much as boiled a kettle of water. This memoir covers the Second World War to the death of his wife in 1976 (he died in 1983).

[Bernard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Half way through the second volume of Kenneth Clark's autobiography. As gripping, informative and as exciting as the first volume. A gentleman and an all-around amazing person. Lord Clark's perspective on art is simply second to none.

[Darla Ebert · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just not as interesting (to me) as I had hoped it would be. There is a lot of inside-talk that leaves me baffled. Probably it would have helped if I could have found the prior book which could have given more of a window into the life of the author.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it! And it took me back to when I first saw "Civilization" while I was in college. I'm going to have to read his other books.