Beryl Cook
Lady Of Marseille Tea Towel
£20
100% cotton twill tea towel featuring the work of Beryl Cook, exclusive to House of Voltaire
Dimensions
65 x 47 cm & 68 x 47 cm
Finishing
100% cotton twill
Courtesy the artist's estate
About The Artwork
This cotton twill tea towel featuring 'Lady of Marseille’ by Beryl Cook has been made exclusively for House of Voltaire to coincide with Studio Voltaire’s major exhibition Beryl Cook / Tom of Finland, bringing together the work of these two cultural icons for the very first time. Inspired by the work of Edward Burra, Beryl Cook travelled to Marseille, where she encountered the subject of this work: "I painted this picture after a visit to Marseilles. It is an exciting place, dangerous too, and we were warned about which streets never to enter. I don't need warning twice, so we left those streets well alone and sat safely on the quayside in the evenings, content to watch activities on the magnificent yachts and the bustle around the small pavement cafés. This girl, dressed in a minute leopardskin outfit and sporting a golden tan, busied herself going here and there, pausing for a chat or drink, and occasionally disappearing into a dark alley. Her final appearance was from a nearby doorway with three small dogs eager for exercise, crossing the road in front of us as we walked back to the hotel; she left me with this last view of her."
About Beryl Cook
Beryl Cook (1926–2008) was one of Britain’s best-loved artists. A self-taught painter, Cook is renowned for her exuberant style and explorations of English cultural identity and everyday life. Portrayed with defiance, her work can be understood as engaging with ideas around ‘female camp’, class and pleasure. Additionally, they can be contextualised within contemporary body positivity movements. Her larger-sized, usually jovial characters celebrate bigger bodies and inclusivity.
Cook's most celebrated and enduring images are of larger-than-life women carousing in nightclubs, eating in cafés or enjoying ribald hen parties. Though the women in Cook’s works embody comedic or bawdy qualities, they command the space of her paintings in complex, vivid and entirely believable portraits that draw from keenly observed social interactions.
Today, her works are held in the collections of the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow, the Bristol City Museum of Art Gallery, and the Plymouth City Art Gallery, among others. The artist has received retrospective exhibitions at Baltic Centre of Contemporary Art, Gateshead (2007); Plymouth City Art Gallery, Plymouth (2017); and A.H.F.T.A.W, New York (2022).