Was Kenneth Clark wrong not to ‘understand’ the value of abstract art?

Kenneth Clark’s view of culture may by now be ‘outmoded’, but I was surprised to read that it was also ‘narrow’. An exhibition at Tate Britain about Clark’s influence, Looking for Civilisation, and the BBC’s threatening to remake the Civilisation TV series, have given rise to some depressing comment. Much mention is made of Clark’s ‘stiff’ presenting style; he mostly stood in front of the camera, rather than walking to and from it as one must now. I assume we are being encouraged to take this as the sign of regrettably rigid thinking. But Clark knew where he stood. And that is at the root of the problem.

‘I believe that order is better than chaos, creation is better than destruction. I prefer gentleness to violence.’ One reviewer chose Clark’s closing statements as particularly demonstrative of a ‘skewed geographical and intellectual balance’. But surely we do not have to be centred – arbitrarily or not – on Renaissance Florence, to agree with Clark? It is not just that Clark dared to make judgments; the real complaint is that, though he was rather Romantic, and though he privately supported a number of modern British artists, he was never a fully convinced, doctrinaire Modernist.