Sister Wendy - nun who talks Picasso

[Olivianna]

Has anyone seen Sister Wendy's shows or read her books? I've only just learned of her. If you've seen/read her stuff, can you tell me what you thought of it?

The whole shtick (which is what it is) just sounds like a huge gimmick to me - an ugly British nun who talks about nudes?

 

[Olivianna]

I've just read a little bio on her - she actually lives in a trailer on the ground of a monastery of Carmelite nuns - and when not doing TV episodes, she keeps a strict vow of silence. Woh.

 

[phrodeau]

I've heard of her before, and it sounds like she really knows her stuff. She may not be the most astute critic of art, but she is helping to popularize the masters, and that's a great benefit.

 

[Olivianna]

...but she is helping to popularize the masters, and that's a great benefit.

Why is it a great benefit?

 

[badasschick]

Frankly the bitch frightens me.

 

[modest mouse]

She is charismatic in some oddball way no one can fully explain.

I miss Bob Ross.

 

[Guest]

 

[phrodeau]

Why is it a great benefit?

Because they deserve to be popularized. The better appreciated fine art is, the better the funding for museums and restoration efforts, and the richer the culture of the world.

 

[Guest]

 

[kotori]

sure, whatever

all t.v. is a schtick, but so what? she does a nice overview and has some interesting segués from one subject to another. at least she's enthusiastic. i also liked robert hughes' (the aussie-born art critic from Time magazine) series "the shock of the new" some years ago.

 

[Olivianna]

Because they deserve to be popularized. The better appreciated fine art is, the better the funding for museums and restoration efforts, and the richer the culture of the world.

To some extent I agree with 4laterer.
How should one go about deciding what is of good quality and what isn't...and furthermore, is quality the ultimate basis for deciding what belongs in the category of great masterpieces of art? Finally, shall we continue reproducing/perpetuating the same paradigms of history (that say that Michelangelo is the be-all, end-all of great artistic genius) that clearly posit that paintings by white European males are THE masterpieces?

 

[Starfish]

She is charismatic in some oddball way no one can fully explain.

I miss Bob Ross.

I am going to go paint some happy little clouds right now. Yes. Just put those happy little clouds right where they should be.





Who needs valium when you can watch Bob Ross reruns on PBS?

 

[Olivianna]

Re: sure, whatever

all t.v. is a schtick, but so what? she does a nice overview and has some interesting segués from one subject to another. at least she's enthusiastic. i also liked robert hughes' (the aussie-born art critic from Time magazine) series "the shock of the new" some years ago.

Well, that's what I've heard about her. I don't mean to give her a bad rap without having checked her out myself. Maybe I'm just sour because I don't even have a TV.

 

[SINthysist]

Red Green on art...

If it looks like something I can do..., it isn't art.

Like pissing into a jar and placing a crucifix in it.

 

[SINthysist]

I hope Starfishies's art doesn't look like something I can do...

BTW - Where's my fawking commision?

 

[kotori]

I think the service is to make "art" (whatever that might be) a little more accessible, and a little less esoteric. And that is a good thing. Because realize it or not, we're surrounded by it every day. One of the best lines that Hughes had (and this is like fifteen, maybe twenty years ago) was something to the effect of 'everything that made, was designed.' Good, bad or otherwise, each and every thing was the result of conscious decissions by some "designer" some where. And it's either in a renaissance, beaux-art tradition, or a reaction to it, or a rejection of it, or some "other," but it's the 800-lb gorilla--you can't live in the western world and ignore it.

 

[Olivianna]

Update:
I watched the Renaissance episode by Sister Wendy today. She's totally insane. She makes shit up and totally talks out of her ass.
And she can't say her r's wight.

 

[peachykeen]

I love her!!!!! I haven't seen her in years tho (since moving to UK). Oh she used to just crack me right up, I remember one show, I can't remember which artist/painting it was but it was a nude and she was going on and on about the 'palpable suppleness of the buttocks' and such, making this little squeezy hand gestures and this expression of total rapture.

 

[Olivianna]

I love her!!!!! I haven't seen her in years tho (since moving to UK). Oh she used to just crack me right up, I remember one show, I can't remember which artist/painting it was but it was a nude and she was going on and on about the 'palpable suppleness of the buttocks' and such, making this little squeezy hand gestures and this expression of total rapture.

Peachy-hon, yeah, I can get how people like her for the comic effect, but I think a lot of people take her seriously. I just can't. Not only is she obsessed with taking everything in art literally, she also has an odd fixation on talking about how attractive artists are. Her explanation for the Mona Lisa essentially consisted of explaining that the subject's half-smile was the result of a crush she (the subject) must've had on the "very attractive Leonardo." Barf. Total garbage.

 

[kotori]

Update:
I watched the Renaissance episode by Sister Wendy today. She's totally insane. She makes shit up and totally talks out of her ass.
And she can't say her r's wight.

this made me smile, big time.

 

[Problem Child]

I bet she's got a smashing Victorian era dildo collection.

 

[Shiner]

I've just read a little bio on her - she actually lives in a trailer on the ground of a monastery of Carmelite nuns - and when not doing TV episodes, she keeps a strict vow of silence. Woh.

Not so much a trailer as a mobile hovel

 

[peachykeen]

Well, I can't say what percentage of people who would watch her would takewhat she says to eart or not, but I look at it this way:

-someone like yourself who has a bit of background in and exposure to fine arts can hear what she says and make an informed decision that she talking a load of bollocks, if they care to.

-someone who does not have such a background, and doesn't know where to begin interpreting paintings, if they happen to find themselves watching and becoming interested in what she's saying, well, maybe they then get inspired to go to a museum, or check out a book on a certain artist(s), or whatever - in other words, maybe she gets the ball rolling for them.

Either way, she's harmless.

 

[Olivianna]

-someone who does not have such a background, and doesn't know where to begin interpreting paintings, if they happen to find themselves watching and becoming interested in what she's saying, well, maybe they then get inspired to go to a museum, or check out a book on a certain artist(s), or whatever - in other words, maybe she gets the ball rolling for them.

Either way, she's harmless.

This is essentially the conclusion me and my classmates came to (we watched it together). It is still frustrating. We're arguing high stakes here in the specialist's world - and what it comes down to is being happy that Joe Shmoes may actually bother looking at a painting for longer than 3 seconds - dragging themselves through museums as if they were in Disneyworld. At the end of it all, I agree with you. I guess we'll settle for the Nun's eye view of buttocks and pretty artists.

 

[kotori]

did you ever notice how many people in museums only seem to read the little card and not actually look at the works themselves?

(sorry for sounding so andy-rooneyesque)