It was as she wanted it. God looked at his creation and said, It is good. In another interview she added, Theres too much puritanical fear of pleasure., She was fully aware that a woman of the cloth could scare some people off. Returning to South Africa, she taught for 15 years at a Cape Town convent and later lectured at Johannesburgs University of Witwatersrand. Nicknamed the Art Nun, she offered eloquent and down-to-earth commentary that made art accessible to everyone. Wendy Mary Beckett[1] (25 February 1930 26 December 2018), better known as Sister Wendy, was a British religious sister and art historian[2] who became known internationally during the 1990s when she presented a series of BBC television documentaries on the history of art. Viewers were astonished and delighted, especially by some of her uninhibited expressions of rapture. She called her television debut at the Norfolk gallery the fatal moment, in her interview with the Times. She was wonderful! Corrections? A scene inside the Vatican from Sister Wendys Story of Painting, one of her many BBC series. David Willcock, executive producer for Spire Films, has worked with Sister Wendy Beckett on several of her series. If I had known how much time it would take, I would never have started it.. | READ MORE. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. In a 2000 interview with PBS, she explained her appreciation of non-Christian religious art: all great religions are great because theyre based upon the longings of the human heart. Check out some of the. Our Diocesan Mission & Ministry Committee exists to help each congregation to grow in their mission and ministry under this vision, and wishes to appoint to a new post to support its work. She once said she persisted because she had a calling to talk about art in ways the average person could appreciate. The Most Memorable Contestants of 'American Idol': Where Are They Now? Her first book, Contemporary Women Artists, was published in 1988. She had a gift for storytelling and drama, as well as a clear passion for her subject matter. Even throughout her success, Beckett remained dedicated to the convent. She never liked her Catholic parents choice of name. Her most ambitious series, Sister Wendys Story of Painting, took her 30,000 miles through Europe, the Middle East and the United States, to survey works ranging from prehistoric cave paintings in France to the masterpieces of Picasso and the Pop Art of Andy Warhol. Its a trivial little name. Alexandra believes that enjoying the art of the past is the closest she can get to time travel, only much safer. But most viewers really liked her anyway, because she had a great personality on screen, she knew her art, and she made it interesting to them. She was ambivalent about celebrity. By 2002, Beckett had published some 20 books and completed 11 art programs for public television. My profound appeal is that hell make it possible for me to live up to it. In his great flying cloak theres a world. She always returned to the austere seclusion that was her home for nearly a half-century, although her trailer was upgraded in 1994. Los Angeles, Stranger Things play that may hold key to the end taking 1959 Hawkins to West End, Commentary: Now hiring! Mobile Register and Baldwin County. This was the main reason she ventured outside her beloved life of solitude to help people experience the joys and spiritual benefits of fine art, which she believed should be shared by all. . In the late 1990s, Sister Wendy Beckett visited the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for her series on U.S. museums. Church Times 2023. Obituaries Section. She is survived by a brother, Wendell. In fact, she didnt actually see most works in person until she visited museums to film her lectures. Sister Wendy Beckett the Roman Catholic nun who became an unconventional television star died on Wednesday at the age of 88, the Carmelite Monastery in Quidenham, England confirmed to. You make such a fool of yourself.. Yet, this relationship between arts is not unidirectional. Sister Wendy Beckett, (born February 25, 1930, Johannesburg, South Africadied December 26, 2018, East Harling, England), South African-born British nun who appeared on a series of popular television shows and wrote a number of books as an art critic. She was a hugely popular BBC presenter and will be fondly remembered by us all.. She also penned books that focused solely on religion, notably Sister Wendy on Prayer (2010) and Spiritual Letters (2013). Sister Wendy Beckett was a BBC presenter and art historian. She had acquired all the star trappings but a wardrobe adviser a publicist, an agent to negotiate fees and contracts, promotional interviews with Charlie Rose and Bill Moyers, and visits with dignitaries like Prime Minister John Major at 10 Downing Street and Pope John Paul II, who commended her for broadcasting a positive image of the church. The sisters worried about the lack of insulation, so they put up a small mobile home, which has a lavatory, bathroom and light fittings, she told The Telegraph of London in 2010. I know that the way God gives himself to me is not the way he gives himself to most people, and its no good just talking about God and me., Sometimes, I wake up breathless with wonder at what God has given me, she said. [12], Beckett was often effusively verbal in her descriptions of the human body in paintings, both male and female. Sister Wendy was small and stooped, with a plain face, buck teeth and a slight speech impediment that rendered Rs as Ws. HEATHER KING. Could you be called to shape the future of Mission and Ministry across the Diocese of Worcester? Sister Wendy Beckett, the cloistered nun who ventured out of seclusion to . Years after she had given up on television, I took her on a trip round some London exhibitions and we were constantly stopped by people wanting to know when she would be back on the small screen. She taught in Cape Town, South Africa, and Liverpool in northern England. In 1970, she returned to England and moved into the trailer at the Carmelite Monastery. It was only a feeling: it was not reality., Death is the climax of our life, when we pass into the presence of God, Sister Wendy observed in 2012. Read about our approach to external linking. By then, viewers were accustomed to her mischievous humor and unconventional views. And certainly those who accompanied her on the road enjoyed the more down-to-earth side she would display, enjoying a glass or two of wine (in preference to tea or water) to revive her when she felt faint, or counselling members of the crew on their romantic lives. Her order agreed to her living thereafter under the protection of the Carmelites in Norfolk as a hermit, devoting herself to prayer. Sister Wendy Beckett in 1997. I spend a lot of time looking at and reading about art, but I still came away with a new appreciation and perspective after watching videos like this one. Sister Wendy. She was a hit, a natural if eccentric personality with a gift for drama that made art accessible to the general public. Bending backward in her black habit in the Vaticans Sistine Chapel, gazing up through large eyeglasses at Michelangelos The Creation of Adam, Sister Wendy spoke with a storytellers wonder at the solemn, sensuous moment on the ceiling as two fingertips near the touch that begat the creation of life. So, dont ever think that you cant enjoy and understand art if you dont have an art history degree. Two other series on art, Sister Wendys Grand Tour (1994) and Sister Wendys Story of Painting (1997), appeared on the BBC and were soon shown throughout Europe. Her work has appeared in a number of publications, including NYmag.com, Flavorwire and Tina Brown Media's Women in the World. The Grand Tour took Sister Wendy to cities including Paris, Madrid and Florence in 1996, Sister Wendy's Odyssey showed the unlikely TV star at her caravan in Norfolk in 1992, Isabel Oakeshott: Why I leaked minister's messages. If youre already a subscriber or donor, thank you! Her unique style drew close to 4 million viewers, mesmerized by her billowing black robes and unpretentious observations. Time Magazine. He fell in love but he killed her.. Prior to that, she had studied English literature at Oxford University and taught in her native homeland of South Africa. In the late 1990s, Sister Wendy Beckett visited the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for her series on U.S. museums. Sister Wendy began stud She wrote, asking for a catalog of a George Segal sculpture exhibit. Sister Wendy began. Schoolchildren ran to her side when they saw her crossing the county museums plaza. Sister Wendy Beckett and Robert Ellsberg in 2017. Graham Beal who was artistic director of LACMA in 1999, first met Beckett by mail decades earlier when he was with the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. Meet Sister Wendy. Sister Wendy was great. We love art history and writing about it. She even used to promise to enlist the nuns of Quidenham to pray that some of the unmarried women producers she worked with would find suitable partners. Dressed in black nun's habit, Sister Wendy stood in front of paintings, and without script or autocue discussed them to the camera. Sister Wendy was well educated, but not in art history. I am prepared to marvel at their inexplicable enthusiasm.. ", Close friend Xinran Xue said Beckett's death was "a huge loss for the art world. Beckett emerged as an unlikely TV personality in the 1990s through her belief that art belongs to . The programs like Sister Wendys Odyssey, Sister Wendys Grand Tour, and Sister Wendys Story of a Painting were immediate hits, often drawing a 25 percent share of the British viewing audience, according to The New York Times. A person can pray and read at the same time., Often in frail health, she spent most of her public life in a wheelchair and only stood up to deliver her light, witty comments before the camera. In her honor, let's learn a few important things from Sister Wendy. She insisted, however, on describing the depiction of the human anatomy in art when it was called for, stating that "God did not make a mistake when He created the human body, so I am not making a mistake by describing it.". In the 1980s, Sister Wendy obtained permission from her superiors to start studying art, which she did by combing through books and examining postcard reproductions of famous works. In fact, being unusual might have even helped her. Sister Wendy speaking about the true meaning of Christmas and iconography (video originally published in 2010). Sister Wendy began stud "Bespectacled, bewimpled and with a decided lisp, the 67-year-old woman makes . Sister Wendy Beckett, the TV star and art historian, has died at the age of 88. A word that appears frequently is unwanted. Its because of you that Im here today.. As Catholics enter into Lent, a season that we mark by acts of both repentance and service, it is worth considering how we might move from alarm at antisemitism to action. Sister Wendy began stud. She returned to South Africa in 1954 to teach, but in 1970, with her health deteriorating, the Vatican gave permission for her to pursue a life of solitude and prayer. She soared to international stardom with her BBC documentaries on the history of art. God is such a total mystery. Her steel could also be glimpsed in relation to what she insisted was her own very minor celebrity. For a 10-part 1994 BBC series, Sister Wendys Grand Tour, she crossed Europe and for the first time swooned over Matisse and Czanne at the Louvre in Paris, Michelangelos Piet in Rome, the canvases of Rembrandt and van Gogh in Amsterdam, and the art treasures of Madrid, Florence, Venice and Berlin. She joined a convent at 16 and started studying fine art in the 1980s. She was 88. He spoke with her in late 2000, shortly after they had completed their visit. She obtained papal permission to leave her congregation and to become a consecrated virgin and hermit. Sign up and get your dose of art history delivered straight to your inbox! Mobile Register and Baldwin County Homepage. And when she did begin studying it, she did so all on her own, through books. Her book Art and the Sacred was published in 1992. Speaking to PBS in 2000 about her U.S. series, Sister Wendys American Collection, she said, I hope that everybody who watches it will realize what art has for them; that this is their heritage, that they are foolish not to explore it, and that the exploration is pleasurable., Brigit Katz Do you have a vision for how to proclaim the Gospel afresh for this generation? Some of her art world colleagues criticized her lack of exposure to original works of art, but she had at least as many admirers. Its going to happen, whether you try to put it off or not; so why not see it as a crowning?. Beckett, Sister Wendy with Patricia Wright. The series followed a simple format: Sister Wendy stood next to an artwork and gave her reaction to the piece. You have a cold heart.. The Guardian. Please contact us at members@americamedia.org with any questions. December 26, 2018. For many people, including . She knew many of these artworks only from reproductions, and the part of the shows magic was capturing the moment she encountered these works for the first time in person. But those who made series such as Sister Wendys Odyssey (1992) and Sister Wendys Story of Painting (1996) recall that, at the time, she seemed to be enjoying herself on and off camera. She spoke very comfortably and often highly of such works. It is most common to talk about paintings or sculptures inspired by a piece of literature. Why Netflix is dabbling in livestreaming, Before and after photos from space show storms effect on California reservoirs, Dramatic before and after photos from space show epic snow blanketing SoCal mountains, The chance of a lifetime: Five friends ski the tallest mountain in Los Angeles, Best coffee city in the world? Thats why I have so much respect and admiration for her mission to share her love of art with the world. A musical, Postcards from God: The Sister Wendy Musical, written by Marcus Reeves and Beccy Smith[31] was performed at the Jermyn Street Theatre in the West End in 2007 and Hackney Empire Studio Theatre in 2008. Thank you for your help! The art historian and critic Sister Wendy Beckett died aged 88 on Wednesday Dec, 26, 2018. We can't do it without youAmerica Media relies on generous support from our readers. Search by Name. Once she had finished her degree, Sister Wendy returned to South Africa and spent some 20 years teaching in convent schools. Sister Wendy eventually wrote some 25 books, including collections of poetry and meditations, and made a dozen documentaries, many released on DVD. We ca n't do it without youAmerica Media relies on generous support from our readers, you! Degree, Sister Wendy returned to South Africa, and Liverpool in northern England her success, was! They had completed their visit in person until she visited museums to film her.... 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