Personal Services T-Shirt

Beryl Cook’s playful artwork ‘Personal Services’ makes an appearance on this lively pink t-shirt, 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. ‘Personal Services’ was inspired by the life story of Cynthia Payne or ‘Madam Cyn’, who infamously ran a suburban South London brothel. Raided in 1978 while a sex party was in progress, the incident raised lurid headlines, in part due to the attendees who allegedly included a peer, an MP, solicitors, company directors and clergymen. Men would purchase ‘luncheon vouchers’ in exchange for Payne’s services, which included dressing them in lingerie and BDSM-play. The artist’s campy painting of Payne and a customer is more affectionate than salacious: a riposte to the faux-moral prurience of tabloid reporting at the time. Cook’s painting was also used as the poster for the 1987 film ‘Personal Services’, directed by Terry Jones from a screenplay by David Leland. Leland covered Cyn’s life in depth, also writing and directing ‘Wish You Were Here’ (1987), a film covering Payne’s earlier years.