"The whole point of Camp is to dethrone the serious. Camp is playful, anti-serious. More precisely, Camp involves a new, more complex relation to "the serious." One can be serious about the frivolous, frivolous about the serious." - Susan SontagIn the 1990s here in the UK, a most unlikely telly superstar was "born".
"The experiential test of whether this art is great or good, or minor or abysmal is the effect it has on your own sense of the world and of yourself. Great art changes you." - Sister Wendy Beckett
We in Britain adore our eccentrics. It is no surprise that some of our most memorable factual TV presenters were people such as Professor Magnus Pyke, Sir Patrick Moore, Fanny Cradock, Barbara Woodhouse, Johnny Ball - all of them real-life learned experts in their field (be it science, cookery, astronomy or even dog training), yet famous because of their unconventional style of explaining things.
The sheer incongruity of a "Bride of Christ" giving "the great unwashed" the lowdown on the lustful gazes of Manet's prostitute-models, or talking about Rubens' penchant for fleshy bottoms, was an instant attraction to non-art-loving audiences and pseuds alike. Such was her popularity that she went on to conquer the airwaves on both sides of the Atlantic. The previously considered "niche" world of art became top-rating television.
Then she - being true to her habit - gave it all up and retired to her solitude. In a caravan. In the grounds of a Carmelite monastery in Norfolk.
It's such a shame the imagination-bereft, "yoof"-culture-obsessed, un-experimental bods in charge of telly programming today cannot, and probably will never, understand just why and how one unassuming nun was worth twenty of the likes of the Stacey Dooleys, Ross Kemps and Dan Snows and other assorted "celebs" bussed in to front, or do the voice-overs for, modern "documentary" fodder.
Imagine any of them being the subject of a whole musical?!
We'll never see her like again.
RIP Sister Wendy Beckett (25th February 1930 – 26th December 2018)
It wasn't simply the contrast of a nun explaining very un-sacred art, it was the content of her lectures. insightful and thoughtful and never condescending to either the artist or the viewer. I think the best shows were the ones where she would go to a museum she was very familiar with and then examine her favorite works there.
ReplyDeleteI agree 100%. She was an utter joy to watch for the very reason that she understood/explained/gave insights into the artworks she showed us in such a way that everyone could gain an appreciation of them. For that, as much as her instantly-recognised appearance, we adored her. Jx
DeleteShe was a joy indeed.
ReplyDeleteHer programmes were unmissable. Jx
DeleteSister Wendy set off a firestorm in the States when she went on about the details of a man's pubic hairs in a painting. That vulgar nun the offended said. The thing was the offended ones were vulgar. Sister Wendy was just so good at explaining art, she could put experts to shame. -Rj
ReplyDeleteUnlike the "professionally offended" of this world, Sister Wendy merely pointed out the facts - men have penises, women have vaginas and breasts, and both (in nature) have public hair. None of which is offensive. Jx
Delete