So in her honor, lets learn a few important things from Sister Wendy. Theyre considered the most successful BBC arts programs since art historian Kenneth Clarks landmark 1969 documentaries, Civilisation. . Sister Wendys Story of Painting. Cookie Settings, Dried Lake Reveals New Statue on Easter Island. When she was a child, her family moved to Edinburgh, Scotland, where her father attended medical school before they returned to South Africa. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Asked once to explain her choice, she said, I am a nun. Sister Wendy Beckett . [12] Sister Wendy Contemplates Saint Paul in Art was published in 2008 to celebrate the Year of Saint Paul. Mobile Register and Baldwin County Homepage. Obituaries Section. Thanks to it, we will be able to sustain and grow the Magazine. 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. Sister Wendy began stud. Sister Wendy Beckett (1930 - 2018) was the unlikely star of art history documentary programs on the BBC. Even throughout her success, Beckett remained dedicated to the convent. But when she wasnt on camera, she went back to solitary contemplation. In view of her religious state, this came as a surprise to some viewers. When she's not being an art historian, she can usually be found ice skating and dancing. Postcards from God: The Sister Wendy Musical, created by Marcus Reeves, ran briefly and camply in a small West End venue. In the early 1970s, she was released from her vows as a Sister of Notre Dame and changed her religious status to consecrated virgin, with the blessing of the Vatican. 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. Following up in 1992, the BBC produced the six-part Sister Wendys Odyssey, with a wider focus on museums across England and Scotland. 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. 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. The Most Memorable Contestants of 'American Idol': Where Are They Now? Sister Wendy began stud She communicated with the Carmelites only by note and lived, for the most part, alone and in total silence. [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). She also suggested that she only said yes to the BBC because she felt the need to make a small financial contribution to the monastery for her keep and had been forced by ill health to give up her work as a translator of medieval Latin manuscripts in the late 70s. 2. The nun passed away on Boxing Day 2018 at the age of 88 - here's everything you need to know about her. She was an effective and knowledgeable presenter, and people enjoyed her quirky style and insights. Her first book, Contemporary Women Artists, was published in 1988. 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. Still, she was spellbound by art: She read about it voraciously, and began writing about it. 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. The New York Times. After suffering three grand mal seizures and learning that she had a form of epilepsy, she received Vatican consent to give up teaching for a life of solitude. He spoke with her in late 2000, shortly after they had completed their visit. 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. 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. 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. Her father was a bank clerk who later changed careers to be a doctor. 4) by Franz Schubert, her chosen book was "an enormous book of logical puzzles", and her luxury item was a "refrigerated tabernacle". Sister Wendy Beckett (1930 - 2018) was the unlikely star of art history documentary programs on the BBC. It challenges the human spirit to accept a deeper reality.. [33], Beckett died on 26 December 2018 at the Carmelite Monastery in Quidenham, Norfolk. Accessed online. Fryer, Jane. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. In 1946, she entered the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, a Roman Catholic congregation of religious sisters dedicated to education. Some art critics agreed, calling her amateurish. 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. 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Beckett, who soared to international fame presenting a series of popular and unscripted art programmes for the BBC in the 1990s, died at the Carmelite Monastery in Quidenham in Norfolk on Wednesday. TV art historian and nun Sister Wendy Beckett has died at the age of 88, it has been announced. She was 88. The capacity to see, to open up the vision of reality that an artist offers, is innate in us all. She was wonderful! One of her last programs was Sister Wendy at the Norton Simon Museum, which aired in October 2002. She had also written 15 books on art and religion, and was a celebrity on both sides of the Atlantic, featured in articles and mobbed by fans. Sister Wendy began. The whole point of prayer is that it is just us, there before the loving God. Its a trivial little name. Later that year, she advised on coping with a family Christmas. 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. Her work included a series of well received documentaries including "Sister Wendy's Odyssey" and "Sister Wendy's Grand Tour.". Lawson, Mark. I do not use the word died, as someone with Sister Wendy's warmth, faith and devotion to share her knowledge does not die. We ask our visitors to confirm their email to keep your account secure and make sure you're able to receive email from us. A Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials. Sister Wendy was well educated, but not in art history. For all of her unique features as a commentator, it was Becketts ease in describing nude paintings that most confounded her viewers. 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. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. As a frequent reader of our website, you know how important Americas voice is in the conversation about the church and the world. 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. Sister Wendy Beckett in 1997. Read reports from issues stretching back to 1863, search for your parish or see if any of the clergy you know get a mention. New York: DK Publishing Inc. in association with the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., 1994. Carmen Hermo, January 8, 2019 British nun and art critic, Sister Wendy Beckett. She loved Star Trek, horse racing and swigging Baileys: Art-loving Sister Wendy really was a one-off masterpieces, says JANE FRYER. Her attitude to Sister Wendy on Prayer, published in 2007, was ambivalent. I really didnt think it was anything. 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. Copyright 2023 America Press Inc. | All Rights Reserved. She became Sister Wendy after Vatican reforms relaxed formalities. "She was a hugely popular BBC presenter and will be fondly remembered by us all. Sister Wendy was small and stooped, with a plain face, buck teeth and a slight speech impediment that rendered Rs as Ws. Could you be called to shape the future of Mission and Ministry across the Diocese of Worcester? Insightful, passionate, intelligent, contemplative. She was probably rather taken aback when she got this lump of a child who did nothing but read. She spent part of her childhood in Edinburgh, where her father trained to be a doctor before returning to South Africa. Adams sprawled there in his naked male glory, but hes not alive, she told viewers in 1996. She liked wonderful sweet people who thanked her for helping them understand paintings, she told The New York Times in 1997. Sister Wendys Book of Saints, published in 1998, was well received. Sister Wendy Beckett, a Roman Catholic nun who interrupted a cloistered life of prayer in England in 1991 and soared to international stardom with lyrical BBC documentaries that made her one of. 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. Aside from the sheer novelty of having a nun on mainstream television unknown since the brief chart-topping career of Jeanine Deckers, the Singing Nun of the early 1960s Sister Wendys success rested largely on her formidable intellect (she received a congratulatory first in English from St Annes College, Oxford, in 1953) and her sure-footed ability to bridge the gulf between fine art and a popular audience. Soon enough, you will be saying with Peter, Lord, it is good that we are here., Cardinal Wilton Gregory said that Pope Francis has made it difficult for Americans to be comfortable with just one aspect of Catholic Social Teachingyouve got to have them all.. Oxford University List of Members for the Year 1972, London, OUP, 1972, p.720, which records full name. 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. She would get up at 1am, the best time for prayer and contemplation, she said. With humour and a gift for storytelling, she brought life and drama to the work. Give yourself over to contemplation. At lunchtime, her waiter sang to her on bended knee beside her chair. But far from it! 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. Search by Name. 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