Beryl Cook and Tom of Finland
Exhibition Catalogue
£20
This catalogue brings together the work of two cultural icons for the very first time: Beryl Cook (1926–2008) and Tom of Finland (1920–1991). It is published to accompany the 2024 exhibition 'Beryl Cook / Tom of Finland' at Studio Voltaire in London.
Dimensions
Paperback, 250 x 200 mm
Finishing
96 pages, over 70 illustrations
Courtesy the artists' estates
About The Artwork
'Beryl Cook / Tom of Finland' puts the work of these two artists into conversation for the first time. The pairing is perhaps unexpected, yet immediate and compelling relationships between their practices are evident. Fundamentally, both artists employed a sustained and coherent way of hyper-realising the body in images that celebrate pleasure and deny shame. Together, their works reveal interconnected ideas surrounding sexuality, gender, taste and class. Artist and writer Huw Lemmey has contributed an incisive new essay exploring the queer contexts inherent to Tom of Finland’s work, but that also finds latent resonance in Cook’s paintings of gay bars and shapely women. He further considers the commercial forms of distribution that made their complex bodies of works highly accessible. Spanning five decades of paintings, drawings and archival materials, this companion catalogue contributes to new readings of the artists’ practices and their enduring impact on popular culture. Edited by Joe Scotland, Nicola Wright and Callum Whitley Texts by Huw Lemmey, Joe Scotland and Nicola Wright
About Beryl Cook and Tom of Finland
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).
Tom of Finland (Touko Laaksonen, 1920-1991) is recognised for his ground- breaking representation of the male figure. A master draughtsman, Tom’s passion for both his medium and his subject matter enabled him to become a powerful cultural force. Tom gave form to an imaginative universe that, in turn, helped fuel real-world liberation movements and enabled gay men to access their strength in new ways. Tom’s drawings reaffirm the centrality of sexuality, joy, and the body in all areas of human endeavour.
In recent years there has been a significant re-evaluation of his artistic practice. Previously somewhat dismissed as only of gay interest, his work has since been exhibited in galleries and public institutions (David Kordansky, LA; ICA, London; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Artists Space, New York). His work is in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki; Art Institute of Chicago; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.