Kenneth Clark’s ‘Civilisation’: Still Important, Still Relevant

Charlemagne is the first great man of action to emerge from the darkness since the collapse of the Roman world … without Charlemagne’s tireless campaigning, we should never have had the notion of the united Europe, we got through by the skin of our teeth,” says Kenneth Clark in the episode, “Skin of Our Teeth,” from his 1969 "Civilisation" series. (Sascha Schuermann/Getty Images)

The year 1969 is one to remember in the history of American television.

“Monty Python’s Flying Circus” premiered that year, and its madcap antics transformed TV comedy. Other beloved series still remembered today, like “Gunsmoke,” “Bonanza,” and “Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color,” entranced audiences as well. In January of that year, in what is still regarded as one of the biggest upsets in American football history, the New York Jets knocked off the Baltimore Colts 16 to 7 to win Super Bowl III, the first championship officially bearing that trademark name.

Of course, the most widely watched event on the screen that year, with more than 600 million viewers from around the world, was the flight of Apollo 11, the spacecraft carrying three American astronauts—Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins—to the moon and back.

Largely forgotten nowadays in this ’69 cavalcade of drama and entertainment is a BBC production that marked a watershed moment in the making of television documentaries and the promotion of Western culture. More than 5 million Americans and 2.5 million citizens of Great Britain tuned in once a week to watch Kenneth Clark’s 13-part series, “Civilisation: A Personal View.”

On both sides of the Atlantic, enthusiasts threw “Civilisation” parties—in part so that neighbors without color television could join them. In England, churches worked to reschedule evensong so that parishioners wouldn’t miss an episode. Later in the summer, an uptick in American tourists traveling to Europe was noted, and on a trip to the United States the refined Sir Kenneth Clark was greeted like a rock star.

First U.S. edition of "Civilisation,"1970, by Kenneth Clark. (Public Domain)

Soon afterward, Clark’s book based on this series sold more than a million copies. Today, “Civilisation” remains in print, DVDs of the series continue to sell, and episodes are available online.

All of which raises questions: Why? What was the attraction for these forays into art and history?

The Man and the Medium

Portrait of Kenneth Clark from James Stourton's biography, "Kenneth Clark: Life, Art and Civilisation." (Public Domain)

With his bad teeth, tweed jackets, and upper-class accent and demeanor, Kenneth Clark (1903–1983) seemed an unlikely candidate to become a television star in the political tumult of the late 1960s. Yet perhaps it was these very attributes that lent him authenticity—“the real deal,” as Americans might say.

Certainly his credentials could not be disputed. Born into wealth, Clark attended Oxford University and then spent two years in Italy under the tutelage of Bernard Berenson, one of the great art critics of the 20th century. On his return to Britain, Clark served as director of Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum and soon held the same position at the National Gallery, two extraordinary achievements for so young a man. For the rest of his life, he gave himself to art as a teacher, a writer, and a public servant.

And though he himself didn’t own a television, Clark took an early interest in exploring ways this new medium could serve the culture. Before making “Civilisation,” he had worked extensively with television and its place in the arts as a tool for reaching and educating mass audiences.

Once television was no longer recorded live, and shows began appearing on the screen in color rather than in black-and-white, the medium became an ideal vehicle for displaying the richness and beauty of paintings, sculpture, and buildings.

The man had met his moment.

The Moment and the Message

"À Mon Seul Désir" ("To My Sole Desire") is one of the six tapestries based on the five senses. In the episode “Romance and Reality,” Clark remarks: “Its real subject is the power of love, which can ... subdue all the forces of nature including these two emblems of lust and ferocity: the unicorn and the lion.” National Museum of the Middle Ages, Paris. (Public Domain)

For some people in the late 1960s, Western civilization seemed on the verge of collapse. Radicalism had become chic, momentous changes in everything from fashion to music to romance and marriage had kicked tradition to the ground, and riots and massive protests from all sorts of causes had broken out in places as distant from one another as Paris, London, Chicago, and Los Angeles.

And then, one winter evening in 1969, a man largely unknown to the general public appeared on television in living rooms throughout Great Britain and the United States. Kenneth Clark launched his series on Western European art and civilization by looking first at the collapse of the Roman Empire and the chaos that followed its demise. In the very beginning, Clark spoke of the fragility of civilization, saying of the fall of Rome: “For two centuries the heart of European civilization almost stopped beating. We got through by the skin of our teeth”—which was, by the way, the title of his first episode.

Clark then adds: “In the last few years, we developed an uneasy feeling that this could happen again. And advanced thinkers, who even in Roman times thought it fine to gang up with the barbarians, have begun to question if civilization is worth preserving.”

“In the early 19th century, Paulus Potter’s bull was one of the most famous pictures in Holland. It’s one of the first pictures that Napoleon wanted to steal for the Louvre,” Clark remarks in the episode “The Light of Experience” from his "Civilisation" series. "The Young Bull," 1647, by Paulus Potter. Oil on canvas. Maurice House, Hague, Netherlands. (Public Domain)

As the series progressed, viewers were repeatedly reminded of the art and culture they had inherited from the previous millennium—of why, in other words, their civilization was indeed worth preserving. The building of Chartres Cathedral, the invaluable gifts bestowed by Renaissance Florence and Rome, the writings of Shakespeare and Montaigne, the music of German composers, the art of Dutch painters: These subjects and many more were brought together by Clark and the camera, and made into an enormous collage of European civilization, presented without gimmickry or false notes by the man with the mellifluous voice and gentlemanly presence.

“Man may rise to the contemplation of the Divine through the senses,” wrote Abbot Suger, the father of Gothic architecture. In the episode “The Great Thaw,” Kenneth Clark said: “Nowhere else, I think, is Suger’s favorite saying so convincingly illustrated as it is in Chartres Cathedral.”  (Pit Stock/Shutterstock)

Enchanting Beauty

In her online article on “Civilisation,” Anne Morey speaks of Clark’s insights into the use of television as a medium for education and art. She cites this quote from “The Other Half: A Self-Portrait,” his memoir: “When I set about the programmes I had in mind Wagner’s ambition to make opera into a gesamtkunstwerk—text, spectacle, and sound all united.”

Clark and his sound and camera crew adhered to this ambition throughout the series. From the dramatic landscapes of coastal Ireland in the beginning of the series through all the shots of cathedrals, museums, castles, and more, we learn from Clark’s words about the art while we view the works themselves and hear the music of the age in which they were produced.

And perhaps this feature offers the best explanation for the popularity of  “Civilisation.” The beauty that attracts human beings can move us in profound and mysterious ways. Strangers to faith, for example, may enter Chartres Cathedral and be overwhelmed by feelings of awe, wonder, and peace, a yearning for something beyond themselves. Surely, some of these same emotions crept into the hearts of the program’s viewers as they were enchanted by the spectacle of beauty they found on their screens.

The Critic’s Critics

“The Visit to the Nursery” demonstrates a minor ritual of polite society: a cradle visit. Clark comments that the “Dutch invention of every picture is telling a story, and paintings of everyday life—especially paintings relating social customs and etiquette—is what inspired Victorian British art." “The Visit to the Nursery,” 1661, by Gabriel Metsu. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. (Public Domain)

Not all who watched “Civilisation” fell under its spell. Some art historians considered the production too sweeping and facile, overlooking the fact that the series was designed for multitudes rather than the denizens of academia. Others have accused Clark of chauvinism for neglecting female artists. They forget that Clark was born two years after the death of Queen Victoria and grew up in an era when views about men and women differed from our own. They also forget that in most of the centuries discussed by Clark, the artists considered prominent were men.

In today’s culture, “Civilisation” also leaves itself open to be criticized and mocked for its focus on Europe and Western art. Here again, however, critics miss the point. The full name of both the series and the book is “Civilisation: A Personal View.” Kenneth Clark devoted a lifetime of study and writing to Western art, particularly that of the Renaissance. For him to venture into the arts of China, India, or other civilizations would have been both wrongheaded and ludicrous.

Here, one thinks of the old Arabic saying “The dogs bark, but the caravan moves on.” The wise among us will ignore the critics and continue to enjoy and learn from “Civilisation.”

Lessons for Today

The primary purpose of this series is to educate us in the arts and to allow us a glimpse into why and how we, like Kenneth Clark, might acquire a treasure trove of riches from studying them.

But there is also another lesson here, mainly the idea that civilizations are fragile things and that art and the culture that produced it can be destroyed. Just as the Protestant Reformation brought about the destruction of old churches, paintings, statuary, and relics, so too can movements like today’s cancel culture smash statues in our public squares or remove certain books from our libraries and university curricula.

At the end of “Civilisation,” Clark reflects: “I said at the beginning that it is lack of confidence, more than anything else, that kills a civilization. We can destroy ourselves by cynicism and disillusion, just as effectively as by bombs.”

True. And to push back against disillusionment and gain some confidence from our ancestors, we might begin by watching “Civilisation” as we make our way into the new year.