Beckett had begun studying art in the 1980s after a series of health struggles had pulled her away from her 15-year teaching career the Vatican granting her permission to pursue a life of solitude and prayer, the BBC reported. Even throughout her success, Beckett remained dedicated to the convent. Mobile Register and Baldwin County. A word that appears frequently is unwanted. Her death was confirmed by the Carmelite Monastery in Quidenham, England, where she had lived in a trailer for decades, though not as a member of the Carmelite order. Sister Wendys American Collection. As her fame grew, her passion for military history, crossword puzzles and detective stories became public knowledge. When they overheard Sister Wendys musings on the art, the crew members trained their camera on her, kickstarting her unlikely career on the small screen, as host of a series of beloved programs about the worlds greatest artworks. Becoming a television star certainly seemed like an unlikely path for Beckett who was raised in Edinburgh when she joined the teaching order of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur at just 16. At the British Museum, standing beside a Greek wine jar painted 2,500 years ago, she embroidered the portrayal of Achilles slaying Penthesilea, the Amazon queen, at the fall of Troy. 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I hope that her books and videos will continue to inspire people to visit museums. A visitor to the Carmel, the cook and devout Catholic Delia Smith, was so impressed by Sister Wendys writing that in the late 80s she persuaded the Catholic Herald newspaper to publish them as a weekly series. As it so happened, her trip coincided with a visit from a television crew, which was getting ready to film the feminist theorist Germaine Greer. Although she hadnt appeared on television since the early 2000s, she was still a much-loved figure responsible for putting many people on the path of art appreciation. In 1946, she entered the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, a Roman Catholic congregation of religious sisters dedicated to education. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Anyone can read what you share. Her health was never good she had suffered from a weak heart since childhood and could very quickly run out of energy in mid-take. David Willcock, executive producer for Spire Films, has worked with Sister Wendy Beckett on several of her series. After attending the Notre Dame College of Education in Liverpool and earning a teaching diploma in 1954, she returned to South Africa to teach at Notre Dame Convent, a school for girls in Constantia, Cape Town, where she taught English and Latin. She also penned books that focused solely on religion, notably Sister Wendy on Prayer (2010) and Spiritual Letters (2013). It seemed to her a modest venture. In the late 1990s, Sister Wendy Beckett visited the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for her series on U.S. museums. She and Michelangelo are no doubt having an in depth eternal discussion about the latters art work in the Sistine Chapel. The juxtaposition of this diminutive figure with articulate and enlightening commentary on fine art never grew old. Those who believe in him most are most aware of his non-feelability, as it were. She died at the Carmelite Monastery in Quidenham at the age of 88. Schoolchildren ran to her side when they saw her crossing the county museums plaza. They delivered her meals to the unheated trailer where she slept on the floor, surrounded by towers of art books. Lawson, Mark. Omissions? For many people, including . Privacy Statement 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. if you are trying to comment, you must log in or set up a new account. If you dont know about God, art is the only thing that can set you free., After Sister Wendys appearance in the National Gallery documentary, the Controller of BBC2 rang the films director with the instruction: Give that nun a series.. Since youre a frequent reader of our website, we want to be able to share even more great, As a frequent reader of our website, you know how important, Sister Wendy Beckett meditates on Janet McKenzie's "The Holy Family", Cardinal Cupich: Critics of Pope Francis Latin Mass restrictions should listen to JPII, Cardinal McElroy on radical inclusion for L.G.B.T. They have rejected the false god. Do you thrive on seeing people come to faith? Making television isnt the kind of prayer I would have chosen, but its what God chose for me, she told her interviewer for the radio programme Desert Island Discs. From the time she appeared in her first art appreciation program on BBC in 1991, Becketts provocative and witty commentaries captured the attention of museum curators, book publishers and art critics as well as art lovers around the world. In fact, anyone who has a narrow sense of their religion, whether theyre Jew or Christian or Muslim or whatever, has only to look long and intelligently at the great work of another tradition and they will see what the religions have in common. December 26, 2018. Born in South Africa, Sister Wendy moved as a child to Edinburgh, where her father studied medicine, joining a convent when she was 16. When Sister Wendy Beckett took a rare break from her life of solitude to visit an art gallery, the hermetic nun didn't expect to end up a celebrity. In a gentle-but-enthusiastic tone, Sister Wendy delivered her commentary straight into the eye of the camera without the help of a script or autocue. I have an electric kettle, fridge, warming oven and night storage heater, so my life is as comfortable as it needs to be., Sister Wendy Beckett, Nun Who Became a BBC Star, Dies at 88, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/26/obituaries/sister-wendy-beckett-dead.html. Like Sister Wendy, I believe that art is for everyone. I find myself saying to myself firmly that I might not have been interested or excited or challenged by what Ive seen, she said on a rare trip to London in 2008 to see an exhibition by those on the Turner Prize shortlist, but the artists who made these installations must have been. This article was amended on 31 December 2018. They might think a nun had church-y designs on them, she admitted. BBC director of arts Jonty Claypole paid tribute, saying Sister Wendy had "a unique presentation style, a deep knowledge of and passion for the arts". Sister Wendy Beckett, the cloistered nun who ventured out of seclusion to . The Republican Homepage. 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. Her favorite artists, according to the Times, were Poussin, Velazquez, Goya, Titian and Cezanne, some of the most revered names in art history. He spoke with her in late 2000, shortly after they had completed their visit. Her request was granted, and in 1970 she moved back to England, settling on the grounds of the Carmelite monastery in Quidenham, Norfolk. Sister Wendy Beckett in 1997. It was seen in some of her verdicts on modern artists who failed to interest her, though cloaked as ever in a show of nun-like Christian charity. Updates? In fact, being unusual might have even helped her. After obtaining permission to study art in the 1980s - largely through books and postcard reproductions of the great works obtained from galleries - Sister Wendy decided to write a book to earn money for her convent. In 1950 she enrolled at the University of Oxford, graduating (1954) with top honours in English. The Republican. Menu. 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. Royalties and residuals amounted to an income large enough for her to replace her trailer-hermitage for a newer model, with heat, and to put aside some money for her retirement, as well as help pay the convents expenses. Adams sprawled there in his naked male glory, but hes not alive, she told viewers in 1996. (You will need to register. Obituaries Section. For all of her unique features as a commentator, it was Becketts ease in describing nude paintings that most confounded her viewers. Through this the two became good friends. Museum postcards and exhibition catalogs were her main research materials. Copyright 2023 America Press Inc. | All Rights Reserved. She died at the Carmelite Monastery in Quidenham at the age of 88. Sister Wendy Beckett (1930-2018) was probably the world's most unconventional art historian. I dread being someone wholl fritter it away., Her profound expositions of the paintings are deceptively simple, wrote our TV reviewer in 2013, of Sister Wendy and the Art of the Gospel. Sympathy Ideas . At some stage, she would walk over to the Carmel to collect food and her post and then turn in for the night at 6pm. In the 1990s she became one of the most unlikely television stars. Born Wendy Mary Beckett in Johannesburg, she moved as a child to Scotland, in 1946 joined the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, a teaching order, and earned a degree in . Sister Wendy Beckett (1930 - 2018) was the unlikely star of art history documentary programs on the BBC. What Sister Wendy Beckett, the Late Nun and Popular Art Historian, Taught Me About Being a Curator She made me want to study art history. If you login and register your print subscription number with your account, youll have unlimited access to the website. Sister Wendy Beckett, who has died aged 88, could be dismissive of the high-profile television work that made this hermit nun with owl-like glasses into an unlikely household name during the 1990s. Terms of Use It was as she wanted it. I really didnt think it was anything. , An Interview,Sister Wendys American Collection, PBS. She was 88. [32], In 1993, Sister Wendy recorded an abridged audio version of Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich. She would get up at 1am, the best time for prayer and contemplation, she said. PEOPLE Picks the Best New Books of the Week, 'Top Chef' Houston: Meet the Chefs Competing on the New Season of Bravo's Food Series. Once she had finished her degree, Sister Wendy returned to South Africa and spent some 20 years teaching in convent schools. In Sister Wendys Grand Tour, she wrote: I look forward to the day when it will dawn upon everybody that they can have odysseys and Grand Tours and share the fruits of the world. 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 Socialites give up their cab for her.. 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 liked wonderful sweet people who thanked her for helping them understand paintings, she told The New York Times in 1997. Her work included a series of well received documentaries including "Sister Wendy's Odyssey" and "Sister Wendy's Grand Tour.". Several years later, he moved to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and postcards from the Norfolk monastery arrived there. Advertising Notice And her pubic hair is so soft and fluffy., For the rest of her life she was asked to explain her views on sex. [3] Her programmes, such as Sister Wendy's Odyssey and Sister Wendy's Grand Tour, often drew a 25 percent share of the British viewing audience. Sister Wendy Beckett was a BBC presenter and art historian. Postcards from God was created by Marcus Reeves, not the originators of Jerry Springer: The Musical as stated in an earlier version. 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.". She dressed not as a Carmelite, but in a traditional black and white habit that she designed herself, merging features from several orders. At Oxford University, as a student in her early 20s, Beckett lived in a nuns hostel and soon after graduation moved back to South Africa to teach in a religious school. But audiences were captivated by her richly human tales, which brought art to life. Beckett began her art career as a magazine critic, reviewing exhibitions for small British art journals in the mid-1980s and published her first art book, Contemporary Women Artists, in 1988. Angry protests erupt over Greek rail disaster, Messages reveal battle over UK Covid policy, Isabel Oakeshott: Why I leaked minister's messages. 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. HEATHER KING. Hoping to earn some money for the Carmelite order, Sister Wendy began writing about art for British Journals, and in 1988 published her first book, Contemporary Women Artists. Thats why I have so much respect and admiration for her mission to share her love of art with the world. Sister Wendy began stud By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes. And indeed wicked it is! No one would dare write a book about how a husband and wife are to talk to each other, she commented in an interview (Features, 17 October 2007). Your Privacy Rights Wendy is greatly missed by her husband Eugene, daughters Amanda (Jay) and Nicole (Tyler), sister Cheri, grandchildren Lochlan, Beckett, Evera, Nessaya and extended family. But her insightful, unscripted commentaries a blend of history, criticism and observations on Leonardo da Vinci, van Gogh, Botticelli, Rembrandt, Monet and other Western masters connected emotionally with millions in Britain and America. 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. Sister Wendy Beckett passed away on Boxing Day 2018. The television chef Delia Smith, a Roman Catholic convert, volunteered to drive her there each week. To explore the Church Times website fully, please sign in or subscribe. In her passion for self-denial, she had not seen a movie since 1945, visited a museum or even seen a great painting, only reproductions in books. Wendy Mary Beckett was born in Johannesburg on Feb. 25, 1930, to Aubrey and Dorothy (Sheehan) Beckett. Until she was 61, she had been a model of worldly renunciation: a hermit living in a windowless trailer on the grounds of the Carmelite Monastery in East Anglia, subsisting mainly on skim milk and rarely speaking to anyone. In 1991, a BBC producer, Nicholas Rossiter, persuaded her to do a stand-up documentary about Britains National Gallery, talking about its paintings. With humour and a gift for storytelling, she brought life and drama to the work. [8], Outside her academic work, she lived in a convent which maintained the strict code of silence typical in convents prior to the changes following the Second Vatican Council (19621965). Her insights into the artists she encountered on screen struck a chord with many who had previously lacked the vocabulary and the confidence to feel at home in art galleries. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. The art historian and critic Sister Wendy Beckett died aged 88 on Wednesday Dec, 26, 2018. Search by Name. He added: "She was a hugely popular BBC presenter and will be fondly remembered by us all.". Reminding viewers that this child was the son of God in Christian theology, she offered her unconventional best advice. She claimed to not really like either the travel or the attention involved in her endeavors, but she said she felt good when hearing from people who were positively impacted by her work. When Sister Wendy Beckett took a rare break from her life of solitude to visit an art gallery, the hermetic nun didn't expect to end up a celebrity. She preferred the quiet monastic life but felt that introducing people to art was a calling too strong to ignore. Shame on you, Degas, she scolded the French Impressionist for portraying women in gawky poses. I am prepared to marvel at their inexplicable enthusiasm.. Menu. Her knowledge has passed down and is now ingrained in many people through her books and television programmes. McFadden, Robert D. 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