You can find a full list of her works here. , An Interview,Sister Wendys American Collection, PBS. 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". The whole point of prayer is that it is just us, there before the loving God. Following up in 1992, the BBC produced the six-part Sister Wendys Odyssey, with a wider focus on museums across England and Scotland. Health problems combined with the dream of a contemplative life, which she had abandoned when she entered her order of teaching nuns, led Beckett back to England. 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. 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. 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. New York: Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1994. It launched her television career. He spoke with her in late 2000, shortly after they had completed their visit. 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. I will always be a nun. She had spent more than 20 years in a convent, perfecting the ways of religious life. Cookie Settings, Dried Lake Reveals New Statue on Easter Island. 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. 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. 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. Now its on to find the true one.. In the 1990s she became one of the most unlikely television stars. TV art historian and nun Sister Wendy Beckett has died at the age of 88, it has been announced. (You will need to register. 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 the most improbable art critics in television history, died on Wednesday in the village of East Harling, England. That is too final a word. She died at 14:30 GMT at the Carmelite monastery in Quidenham. Dressed in black nun's habit, Sister Wendy stood in front of paintings, and without script or autocue discussed them to the camera. She was, the Church Times TV critic at that time, David Johnson, observed, an unself-conscious natural for television. Visit her at A Scholarly Skater and The Art Museum Insider. The Carmelites offered her a home on their property and took care of her for the rest of her life. Beckett is survived by her sister, Barbara. By 1997, as she marked 50 years as a nun, the Oxford-educated Sister Wendy had made three television series, the most successful BBC arts programs since Civilisation, the art historian Kenneth Clarks landmark 1969 documentaries. 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. Sign up and get your dose of art history delivered straight to your inbox! She began living in a caravan on the grounds of a Carmelite monastery at Quidenham, Norfolk, and her caravan was later replaced by a mobile home. Her programmes included Odyssey, Sister Wendy's Grand Tour and Sister Wendy's Story of Painting. When Sister Wendy Beckett first shared her love of European paintings with public television viewers in 1997, the New York Times observed that the 67-year-old nun from a British monastery was . She was a sister of the Catholic Church who became prominent in the 1990s presenting BBC shows about art history. As he drove his spear through her throat, she said, their eyes met, and he saw how young she was and how lovely and brave. Sister Wendy Beckett (1930-2018) was the unlikely star of art history documentary programs on the BBC. 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). 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. But audiences were captivated by her richly human tales, which brought art to life. It was a slightly daunting task to contact her, but no less daunting was the tiny handwriting in which her contributions returned. Sister Wendy began stud To those who regarded her life as a hermit and a TV celebrity as self-contradictory, the response lay in her sense of obedience. Climb the mountain. Sister Wendys Grand Tour: Discovering Europes Greatest Art. From Macbeth to Romeo and Juliet, William Three monotheistic religions are the so-called religions of the book. She once said she persisted because she had a calling to talk about art in ways the average person could appreciate. In 1988 her first book, Contemporary Women Artists, was published. [4] In 1997 she made her debut on US public television, with The New York Times describing her as "a sometime hermit who is fast on her way to becoming the most unlikely and famous art critic in the history of television. In December 2012 Sister Wendy was the guest for BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs. 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. I guess Im not the only one she was writing to.. The impact she had on audiences was so great that she even had a musical written about her. Brigit Katz is a freelance writer based in Toronto. 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Her own preferences among the current generation featured figurative and often religious painters such as Greg Tricker, Simon Garden and James Gillick. She was wonderful! Her request was granted, and in 1970 she moved back to England, settling on the grounds of the Carmelite monastery in Quidenham, Norfolk. ", Close friend Xinran Xue said Beckett's death was "a huge loss for the art world. She and Michelangelo are no doubt having an in depth eternal discussion about the latters art work in the Sistine Chapel. 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. She died at the Carmelite Monastery in Quidenham at the age of 88. Sister Wendy Beckett . Menu. The greatest reward I could have is to know that, despite my inadequacies, more and more people are coming to believe in their own powers of artistic appreciation., Sister Wendy Beckett, Sister Wendys Grand Tour, 12. 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. 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. Beckett, Sister Wendy. Had she been worldlier, she used to reflect, she would never have joined the Notre Dame de Namur sisters the order that ran her own school because she was physically unsuited to the rigours of classroom teaching. She joined a convent at 16 and started studying fine art in the 1980s. [14], Having overheard her commentary while attending an art exhibit, a film crew asked to videotape her. She died at the Carmelite Monastery in Quidenham at the age of 88. Sister Wendys Story of Painting. In 2001 poor health and a desire to return to a life of solitude led Sister Wendy to announce that she was ending her BBC series. Sister Wendys Book of Saints, published in 1998, was well received. Try, even for a few moments, to find a place apart. Yet, this relationship between arts is not unidirectional. Sister Wendy, a clever and perceptive woman, was herself aware of the contradiction and struggled to square the circle, some times more successfully than others. [2] Besides having received the Carmelite prioress and a nun who brought her provisions, she dedicated her life to solitude and prayer, but allotted two hours of work per day to earn her living. HEATHER KING. She became Sister Wendy after Vatican reforms relaxed formalities. 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. 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. Sister Wendy Beckett, the Roman Catholic nun who left her cloistered convent life to launch a television career in later life and became an unlikely small screen star, has died aged 88. The Carmelite Monastery of Quidenham said Beckett died at the monastery Wednesday afternoon. When asked once what the other Quidenham nuns thought about her going round the world with a camera crew, she replied, they feel sorry for me. Sister Wendys Story of Painting was one of my first art books as a child. A Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials. Thanks to it, we will be able to sustain and grow the Magazine. Search by Name. Low-profile art world family seeks personal assistant, NBCs Chicago series have strong showings but CBS wins weekly TV ratings race, Hunger Games star Jena Malone says someone I had worked with sexually assaulted her, Travis Barkers finger injury delays Blink-182 tour: One of those freak accidents. She studied literature at Oxford in the early 1950s, living in a convent and observing its strict code of silence for four years. She graduated from Oxford with high honors in English literature, and one of her original jobs in her monastery was translating Medieval Latin texts. Please contact us at members@americamedia.org with any questions. I thought it was just a weekend here or there.. When she was a child, her family moved to Edinburgh, Scotland, where her father attended medical school before they returned to South Africa. 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. She liked wonderful sweet people who thanked her for helping them understand paintings, she told The New York Times in 1997. Beckett continued writing about her interest in icons in the second volume of her Sister Wendy Contemplates series, published in July 2011. Time Magazine. Lawson, Mark. In 1950 she enrolled at the University of Oxford, graduating (1954) with top honours in English. 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. I think that this type of open-mindedness towards things outside our usual preferences is essential for every art lover. 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. She had a a unique presentation style, a deep knowledge of and passion for the arts, remembers Jonty Claypole, director of arts at the BBC, which broadcasted Sister Wendys programs. 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. In 1991, a BBC producer, Nicholas Rossiter, persuaded her to do a stand-up documentary about Britains National Gallery, talking about its paintings. Articles by The Associated Press, The AP. It is not that they were strong enough, or virtuous enough, to win his love, because that love is always freely given, but only those we call saints actually did that blessed taking; accepted the reality of being loved with all its consequences, she wrote. Its a trivial little name. Sister Wendy was small and stooped, with a plain face, buck teeth and a slight speech impediment that rendered Rs as Ws. She obtained papal permission to leave her congregation and to become a consecrated virgin and hermit. She loved Star Trek, horse racing and swigging Baileys: Art-loving Sister Wendy really was a one-off masterpieces, says JANE FRYER. It was a magical moment of television, too. According to a 1997 New York Times profile, Sister Wendy moved into a rickety trailer in the forest, where she prayed for seven hours each day and subsisted on little more than coffee, crackers and skim milk. 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.. She had a gift for storytelling and drama, as well as a clear passion for her subject matter. All rights reserved. Sister Wendy Beckett and Robert Ellsberg in 2017. Born in South Africa in 1930, and raised in Scotland, she joined the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur when she was just 17 years old. "Sister Wendy had a unique presentation style, a deep knowledge of and passion for the arts," BBC director of arts Jonty Claypole said. Frank Bruni, in The Times, said, The incongruity of such passionate and often sensuous statements coming from a hunched, bespectacled, 67-year-old nun is the secret to much of Sister Wendys charm and success.. Three Jesuit astronomers and the 16th-century pope who commissioned the Gregorian calendar have recently been honored with having asteroids named after them. Contemporary Women Artists, published in 1988, was followed by more books and articles. Fryer, Jane. Her steel could also be glimpsed in relation to what she insisted was her own very minor celebrity. Password reset instructions will be sent to your registered email address. Pausing before the 16th century Italian painting Madonna and Child With Book, by Raphael, she zeroed in on the hefty baby Jesus. Her favourite choice was "Serenade" (D 957 No. In 1991, after 45 years of the cloistered life, Sister Wendy Beckett stepped out of the convent and into London's National Gallery. Updates? BBC. PBS / WGBH Educational Foundation, 2001. Ive no time for gardening and letter-writing, the usual let-outs for those who are alone.. 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.. if you are trying to comment, you must log in or set up a new account. She died on December 26, 2018. As well as more shows, she now gained opportunities to be a published writer on specifically religious subjects, such as the saints, icons, and prayer. Alexandra Kiely Later that year, she advised on coping with a family Christmas. In 1997 Sister Wendys series debuted on public television in the United States. Dont think, fat little bloke, she said. Menu. The series followed a simple format: Sister Wendy stood next to an artwork and gave her reaction to the piece. 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. As a devout Catholic and Consecrated Virgin, you might expect Sister Wendy to have been uncomfortable addressing works of art from other religions, nudes, and sexual subject matter. There was no big Should I give up the caravan to do television? or Am I spoiling my hermit life? she recalled in her book Sister Wendy on Prayer (2006). 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. Requiescat in pace, Sister Wendy. 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. In the late 1990s, Sister Wendy Beckett visited the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for her series on U.S. museums. Sister Wendy eventually wrote some 25 books, including collections of poetry and meditations, and made a dozen documentaries, many released on DVD. Sister Wendy began stud. Remembering Sister Wendy Beckett: beloved Nun, art historian and accidental TV phenomenon. Beckett, Sister Wendy with Patricia Wright. 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. The television chef Delia Smith, a Roman Catholic convert, volunteered to drive her there each week. Yet, while the contradiction could irritate some devout Catholics she was giving, they said, a misleading impression of religious life it was, for most, a key part of her appeal and brought her programmes large audiences. In private and occasionally in public she would question the churchs strict code on sexual ethics as a distraction from the real business of bringing people to God, whatever their gender, chosen method of contraception or orientation. Starting in the early 80s, she began to put down on paper often in close type, squeezed onto the back of a recycled luggage label her thoughts about paintings that she had only ever seen in reproduction. | READ MORE. She cut an unconventional figure for a television personality with her black nuns habit and oversized eyeglasses. TV art historian and nun Sister Wendy Beckett has died at the age of 88, it has been announced. 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. Known for her witty and eye-opening commentary on art, all made while dressed in her black nun habit, Beckett led a series of documentary programs for the BBC in the 1990s and early 2000s. Take it and sit by the window in the sunlight and slowly and reverently eat this dish., Her first book on art, Contemporary Women Artists, was published in 1988. She was a brilliant art critic.". Of a postcoital self-portrait by Sir Stanley Spencer with Patricia Preece, Sister Wendy confessed, I love all those glistening strands of hair, and her pubic hair is so soft and fluffy., It was a sensation, widely quoted. Its clear from just a quick glance at one of her videos that Sister Wendy truly believed in the power of art and beauty. 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 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. 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 was, by her own account, a frail girl. Menu. 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. Nun and art critic who found fame in the 1990s with her popular TV programmes, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. The piece caught the eye of a British Broadcasting Company (BBC) producer, and in 1992 Sister Wendys Odyssey made its debut. Beal sent it to her without charge. Wondering why we ask for your email, or having trouble registering. (AP Photo/Victoria Arocho, File), Were sorry registration isn't working smoothly for you. . In the 1990s she became one of the most unlikely television stars. This unlikely celebrity eventually traveled the world, recording documentaries for British and U.S. television and writing numerous books. Born in South Africa in 1930, she wanted to be a nun as a child, and joined the Sisters of Notre Dame, aged 16. [9] Later she moved to Johannesburg where she was appointed the superior of the local convent, while she also lectured at the University of the Witwatersrand. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sister-Wendy-Beckett, PBS Online - Sister Wendy's American Collection. The Republican. Sympathy Ideas . As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Sister Wendy Beckett during her visit to the Barber Institute of Fine Arts in Birmingham in 2004. Critics pointed to her gapped teeth and her way of pronouncing r as if it were w. Her producers were more impressed by the pithy, ad-lib analyses she could fit neatly into a soundbite, a feat that won her a reputation as one-take Wendy., From the airing of her first series, Sister Wendys Odyssey, in 1992, she evaluated artworks as if the artist were standing beside her. 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. All he can do is lift up a flaccid finger, and out of the clouds whirls down the God of Power. 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. 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. Some of her art world colleagues criticized her lack of exposure to original works of art, but she had at least as many admirers. Her great delight was reading, and, after studying at St Annes College, she graduated with a Congratulatory First in English Literature from Oxford J. R. R. Tolkein led the applause before spending two decades working as a teacher something that she regarded as a martyrdom. Once she had finished her degree, Sister Wendy returned to South Africa and spent some 20 years teaching in convent schools. But when she wasnt on camera, she went back to solitary contemplation. It contained colour illustrations of works by a range of modern artists, with her comments, which were always scrupulously truthful, our reviewer concluded. In the mid-1980s Sister Wendy, who had long been interested in art, began writing essays for British journals, using only postcards and books as her primary reference material. She died at the Carmelite Monastery in Quidenham at the age of 88. 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. December 26, 2018. Find an Obituary. Video, Isabel Oakeshott: Why I leaked minister's messages, Harry and Meghan told to 'vacate' Frogmore Cottage, Whiskey fungus forces Jack Daniels to stop construction, Explosive found in check-in luggage at US airport, Messages reveal battle over Covid school policy, Covid messages leak a massive betrayal - Hancock, Rare Jurassic-era bug found at Arkansas Walmart, India PM Modi urges G20 to overcome divisions, Aboriginal spears taken in 1770 to return to Sydney. Reminding viewers that this child was the son of God in Christian theology, she offered her unconventional best advice. She never liked her Catholic parents choice of name. Her father was a physician. She spoke very comfortably and often highly of such works. In moments of candour, though, she would admit that she liked to share knowledge she had originally joined a teaching order, the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, in 1947, but had to give up the classroom after having epileptic seizures brought on by stress. Born in South Africa in 1930, Wendy Beckett received her dual vocations -- God and art -- early in life. She is survived by a brother, Wendell. (Jay) and Nicole (Tyler); her sister Cheri; and her grandchildren, Lochlan, Beckett, Evera and Nessaya. She stood in front of the paintings dressed in a black nun's habit and discussed the paintings without a script or teleprompter. Sister Wendy Beckett (1930 - 2018) was the unlikely star of art history documentary programs on the BBC. They have rejected the false god. In order to earn money for her convent, she agreed to do a television series about fine art for the BBC, and she quickly became famous. Sister Wendy Beckett (1930 - 2018) was the unlikely star of art history documentary programs on the BBC. He fell in love but he killed her.. 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. 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. Sister Wendy. She was sent to England where she completed her novitiate and then studied at St Anne's College, Oxford, where she was awarded a congratulatory first class honours degree[6] in English Literature. A surprising rise to fame catapulted her into television stardom, where she used her platform to share artistic masterpieces with the public. 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. December 27, 2018. Emerging from her hermit-like . As it so happened, her trip coincided with a . This book, entitled The Iconic Jesus, takes the reader through scenes from the New Testament, accompanied by Beckett's reflections. We never missed her in our house. On the BBC living in a black nun 's habit and oversized eyeglasses Smith! She insisted was her own very minor celebrity to give each month became prominent in the 1990s... Icons in the United States ive no time for gardening and letter-writing, the Church Times tv critic at time... Took care of her childhood in Edinburgh, where her father trained to be a doctor returning... At Oxford in the power of art and beauty to leave her congregation and to become a consecrated and... And the art Museum Insider leave her congregation and to become a consecrated virgin and hermit Greg,! On the BBC Monastery in Quidenham art books as sister wendy beckett funeral subscriber, you have 10 articles... Choice was `` Serenade '' ( D 957 no takes the reader through scenes from the New Testament accompanied. Was most recently revised and updated by, https: //www.britannica.com/biography/Sister-Wendy-Beckett, PBS no daunting! @ americamedia.org with any questions to contact her, but no less daunting was son... Writer based in Toronto fine art in the 1990s presenting BBC shows about art documentary. For BBC Radio 4 's Desert Island Discs religions are the so-called religions of the clouds down... He can do is lift up a flaccid finger, and in 1992, the BBC Church. Of her works here books and articles her unconventional best advice Wendy asked to pursue a life of solitude simple. Wendy really was a Sister of the most unlikely television stars book Contemporary! 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