Did Kenneth Clark fix English art? Was Kenneth Clark an enlightened tastemaker who backed modern English painting and sculpture? Posterity has judged the art historian favourably. Clark is revered as the advocate who opened institutional doors to major innovators including Henry Moore, Paul Nash, John Piper, Barbara Hepworth, Graham Sutherland and Ben Nicholson. Still, three decades after his death, as English modernist art is relegated to the chronicle of history, popular perceptions need to be tested. Did he support genuine talent? Kenneth McKenzie Clark had landed the directorship of Britain’s National Gallery in 1934 at the exceptionally young age of…