Beryl Cook / Tom of Finland brought together for major new exhibition

BERYL COOK Elvira’s Café, 1997

Beryl Cook (b. 1926–d. 2008) was a painter renowned for her exuberant style and depictions of everyday life. Her work chronicled the social milieu of the areas she lived in and visited, notably in Plymouth. Her most enduring images are of larger-than-life women carousing in nightclubs, eating in cafés or enjoying ribald hen parties, rendered in graphic and colourful forms. Cook’s work came to prominence in the mid-1970s, and she quickly became known as one of Britain’s best-loved artists, highly recognised for her distinctive works, which are both celebratory and provocative.

Tom of Finland’s (b. 1920–d. 1991) pioneering depictions of homosexual machismo in his images of bikers, cowboys, labourers, and uniformed soldiers and sailors broadly represented Queer, Leather and muscle communities. A master draughtsman, his works gave form to an imaginative universe that, in turn, helped fuel real-world liberation movements and had a significant influence on a wide range of cultural figures, including the Village People, Freddie Mercury, Jean Paul Gaultier and Robert Mapplethorpe.

Beryl Cook / Tom of Finland will provide a significant refocus and reveal interconnected ideas surrounding gender, sexuality, taste and class. Both artists have a distinct and coherent way of hyper-realising the body in images that fundamentally celebrate pleasure and deny shame. Tom of Finland’s drawings of Gay men proudly revelling in their sexuality both redefined and deconstructed conventions of masculinity. His works were exemplified by a highly coded visual language but radiated joy and vitality. Cook’s paintings, once described by celebrated British comedian Victoria Wood as “Rubens with jokes”, are often deliciously camp but derive from keenly observed social interactions. The women in her works are not caricatured but rather command the space of the painting in complex, vivid and entirely believable portraits.

The exhibition will include a rich archive of materials, many of which have never been seen by the public, including fanmail, preparatory sketches, source photography, and early publications and merchandise that illuminate their working processes. Both artists received their first solo exhibitions in the 1970s; however, their audiences more frequently encountered their work outside of gallery and museum systems.

SEE THE COMPLETE ARTICLE BY MARK WESTALL

Published: 16th April 2024

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