Reading Clark is like drinking champagne compared with the small beer of most art history
Jonathan Jones, The Guardian
Lord Clark was not only brilliant, witty and engaging, but he was a teacher and, surprisingly, a most charming television presence. He has become my lifetime companion
Steven M. Wolf
If you plan to buy a Christmas - or some other - present to somebody that you appreciate very much, I have an ideal suggestion for you. Buy the best television documentary series ever, "Civilisation: A Personal View" by Lord Clark. This lavish, magisterial and beautifully made personal survey by the great art historian Kenneth Clark is still as fresh and captivating as when it was transmitted for the first time in 1969. Kenneth Clark was a somewhat controversial figure, partly due to his distaste of much of so called modern art. But this suites me fine - I share his distaste. The series - available e.g. through Amazon - is one of the great achievements of the BBC.
Below is an excerpt from the series:
Clark quotes:
"People sometimes tell me that they prefer barbarism to civilisation. I doubt if they have given it a long enough trial. Like the people of Alexandria , they are bored by civilisation; but all the evidence suggests that the boredom of barbarism is infinitely greater."
"It is lack of confidence, more than anything else, that kills a civilisation. We can destroy ourselves by cynicism and disillusion, just as effectively as by bombs."
"The great achievement of the Catholic Church lay in harmonizing, civilising the deepest impulses of ordinary, ignorant people."
"It is indeed true that the history of art, like all history, is to a large extent an agreed fable"
PS
This series is now available on blu-ray, which brings fine colours and sharpness to the picture. Even if you have the dvd box, it is well worth investing a few pounds, dollars or euros in the blu-ray box!
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