Sister Wendy is an institution. She is a British hermit, consecrated virgin, and art historian who became well known internationally during the 1990s when she presented a series of documentaries for the BBC on the history of art. Her programmes, such as Sister Wendy’s Odyssey and Sister Wendy’s Grand Tour, often drew a 25 percent share of the British viewing audience. In 1997, Sister Wendy made her U.S. debut on public television and that same year The New York Times described 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. With her eloquent and down-to-earth commentary that made art accessible to everyone she raised thousands of art lovers, if not millions. Here you can hear the comment Sister Wendy made Mark Rothko (and Pop Art).

“I’m not afraid you won’t think this Mark Rothko beautiful, but what I am afraid, a little, somebody might think it’s just beautiful. Lovely colors. No meaning. But meaning is what he was all about, and he would have been furiously angry if anyone thought that, and told you so in suitably salty language. It was subject matter that mattered most to him. And the subject matter was the emotions. Not small, personal emotions up today, down tomorrow , but the great timeless emotions. How we feel about death, and courage, and ecstacy. He was convinced that if you would just encounter his paintings, that emotion would be communicated to you with absolute clarity. So to achieve this he painted very large. Because in a small painting – big you, little painting – you can control it. But with a large painting, it controls you. You’re taken into it.” . . . ” If you can think of a religious painting without religion, this is what you experience here. It’s so timeless, that when I’ve had this encounter, I feel to return to the world of time, I have to shake my head and bring myself down to earth again.

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