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  3. Sister Wendy Beckett, the TV star and art historian, has died at the age of 8

Sister Wendy Beckett, the TV star and art historian, has died at the age of 8

游客2024-01-02  19
问题    Sister Wendy Beckett, the TV star and art historian, has died at the age of 88.
   Beckett emerged as an unlikely TV personality in the 1990s through her belief that art belongs to everyone. Born in South Africa in 1930, Beckett spent part of her childhood in Edinburgh, where her father studied medicine. She taught in several cities including Cape Town and Liverpool.
   Later in life she gained TV fame hosting programmes for the BBC from galleries around the world. Beckett presented a series of documentaries for the BBC during the 1990s, including Sister Wendy’s Odyssey and Sister Wendy’s Grand Tour. Dressed in a black nun’s habit, Beckett would discuss paintings, without script or autocue. One of her most ambitious pieces of TV work was Sister Wendy’s Story of Painting, a 10-part series that saw her travel across Europe, the Middle East and the US. She also published a book with the same title.
   Beckett died at the Carmelite Monastery in Quidenham, Norfolk on Boxing Day afternoon. It is very sad news. Her close friend journalist Xinran Xue said that many people see her as a religious person and she was far more than that. It’s a huge loss for the art world. She was a brilliant art critic.
   Beckett described her childhood as idyllic, where adults never quarrelled or spoke unkindly about one another. "Through my parents’ example there was never any doubt in my mind that God loved us and that it mattered how we behaved," she noted in her book Encounters with God: in Quest of the Ancient Icons of Mary. She joined a teaching order, the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur when she was 17 and she said that her father believed she would struggle to adapt to life as a nun as she was so young. Her mother, however, insisted it was the right path for her, describing her as an "odd child" who had wanted to join a convent since she was a baby. Still as part of the order, Beckett studied at Oxford University in the 1950s and was awarded a congratulatory first-class degree in English literature. She returned to South Africa and taught in convent schools for nearly two decades until her health had deteriorated and her order agreed to send her to live under the protection of the Carmelites in Norfolk as a hermit, devoting her life to prayer. After studying art in the 1980s, Beckett began publishing articles in the local newspaper. Those led to an appearance on a TV arts show and eventually to five major series, scripted and presented by "one-take Wendy", as she was known to directors. Beckett had also published several books in the subject, including Contemporary Women Artists.
   Beckett’s success led to her having a musical written about her, Postcards from God: the Sister Wendy Musical, created by Marcus Reeves. It ran briefly in a small West End venue. Beckett made a name for herself with US audiences in Sister Wendy’s American Collection, where she travelled to six American museums to discuss masterworks of painting and sculpture, and Sister Wendy at the Norton Simon Museum, where she explored the institution in Pasadena, California, in 2001, but she retired to a quiet life soon after.
   News of her death was quickly met with tributes. Writer Dolly Alderton tweeted she was saddened to hear of Beckett’s death, adding she was "always astonished at her intelligence and humility and tenderness". Author Sarah Bessey said that Beckett’s "enthusiasm for art history was such a gift", while Salt, an independent publishing house, noted she was "brilliant at conveying complex ideas with lucidity, enthusiasm and charm".
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答案     电视明星、艺术史学家温迪-贝克特嬷嬷(Sister Wendy Beckett)辞世，享年88岁。
    贝克特相信“艺术属于每一个人”，这一信仰使她在20世纪90年代意外成为电视名人。1930年，贝克特出生于南非，之后在爱丁堡度过了一段童年时光，当时她父亲在那里学医。她曾在开普敦和利物浦等多个城市任教。
    后来，贝克特因主持一档英国广播公司的世界各地画廊节目而走红。90年代，她为英国广播公司制作了一系列纪录片，其中包括《温迪嬷嬷的漫长旅行》(Sister Wendy’s Odyssey)和《温迪嬷嬷环游记》(Sister Wendy’s Grand Tour)。无须脚本和提词机，身穿黑色修女装的贝克特便能侃侃大谈绘画艺术。《温迪嬷嬷谈绘画》(Sister Wendy’s Story of Painting)是贝克特最负盛名的电视作品之一，节目分十集讲述了她的欧洲、中东和美国之旅。之后她还出版了同名书籍。
    节礼日下午，贝克特在诺福克郡(Norfolk)奎丁罕(Quidenham)卡默莱特修道院(Carmelite Monastery)辞世。这是一个不幸的消息。作为其生前好友，记者薛欣然(Xinran Xue)说，许多人都认为贝克特只是一个宗教信徒，但她的成就远不止于此，作为一位出色的艺术评论家，她的去世是艺术界的巨大损失。
    贝克特把自己的童年描绘得诗情画意：大人们总是言辞和善、从不吵架。她在《与上帝相遇：寻找玛丽的古代偶像》(Encounters with God：in Quest of the Ancient Icons of Mary)一书中写到：“父母的榜样让我笃信上帝之爱，我们每一人的行为都很重要。”17岁时，贝克特加入了圣母玛利亚教职类修道会(the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur)。她说，当时父亲认为她这么年轻很难适应修女的生活。而她的母亲却坚信这对她来说是正确的选择，因为这个“奇怪的孩子”从小就想加入修道院。在此期间，贝克特于上世纪50年代到牛津大学学习，并获得了英国文学一等学位。毕业后，她回到南非，在修道院任教近20年。健康状况出现问题后，贝克特被派往英国的诺福克卡默莱特修道院，在那里潜心隐修祷告。经过80年代的艺术学习，贝克特开始在当地报纸上发表文章，并因此在一部艺术类电视节目中崭露头角，导演们所熟知的“一条就过的温迪”，最终成为五大系列节目的撰稿人和演播人。贝克特还出版了几本相关主题书籍，其中包括《当代女艺术家》(Contemporary Women Artists)。
    贝克特成名后，马库斯-里夫斯(Marcus Reeves)为她写了一部音乐剧《上帝的明信片：温迪嬷嬷音乐剧》(Postcards from God：the Sister Wendy Musical)。这部音乐剧曾在伦敦西区的一个小剧场演出过一段时间。贝克特因为两部电视节目为美国观众熟知：一是《温迪嬷嬷的美国藏品》(Sister Wendy’s American Collection)中，她在六家美国博物馆讨论一些绘画和雕塑代表作；另一部是《温迪嬷嬷在诺顿西蒙博物馆》(Sister Wendy at the Norton Simon Museum)，讲述了她在2001年对位于加利福尼亚帕萨迪纳(Pasadena)的这家博物馆所进行的考察。那之后不久，贝克特便开始了归隐生活。
    修女离世的消息一经传开，人们纷纷表示哀悼。作家多莉-奥尔德顿(Dolly Alderton)在推特上说，贝克特的过世令她很难过，她“一直对贝克特的睿智、谦逊和温柔感到钦佩”。作家萨拉-贝西(Sarah Bessey)表示，贝克特“对艺术史的热情是与生俱来的”。一家名为索尔特(Salt)的独立出版社也表示，贝克特“非常擅长用清晰的语言和热情的魅力，来表达复杂的想法”。
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