‘Radical and exhilarating’: Beryl Cook’s show aims to prove she was a serious artist | Exhibitions

In her lifetime, Beryl Cooke’s colorful and vibrant paintings tended to be dismissed by most critics as mere kitsch or whimsy.

A major retrospective of Cooke’s work opening in her chosen city of Plymouth next weekend makes clear that she was a serious and important artist who skillfully chronicled a turbulent period of social transformation.

“This is an exciting moment for Beryl Cook,” said Tera Walkup, curator of The Box Gallery, where the final touches are being put on the Pride and Joy display. “It’s very exciting – the place is full of colour.”

Like many employees, Walkup wore a leopard-patterned piece of clothing while working at the show, a nod to Cook’s favorite motif.

“Beryl Cook wasn’t drawing cartoons,” she said. “She has been actively documenting communities and identities that have been marginalized with affection, mastery, and honesty. Her work from the 1970s to the 2000s embodies working-class joy, body positivity, and queer culture.”

The exhibition comes at an opportune time: 2026 is the centenary of Cook’s birth, and half a century since The Sunday Times launched her into the public consciousness after her first exhibition at the Arts Center in Plymouth.

It also coincides with Devon – known more for its maritime history than its art – seeking to become the UK’s City of Culture.

Cook, who died in 2008 at the age of 81, moved to Plymouth in 1968 and the city became her primary subject, its pubs, streets and lively lido backdrops for her work.

The Pride and Joy exhibition features more than 80 paintings, along with rarely seen sculptures and textiles, as well as access to Cook’s personal archive of photographs, drawings and correspondence.

The ‘Identity and Representation’ section highlights how she depicts those who were ‘other’ and looked down upon whether through attitudes towards gender, class, sexuality or body shape.

Walkup pointed to a little-known painting from 1972 called Bar Girls, which depicts two women with pints of beer. “It may not seem unusual today, but in those days there were still some pubs that would refuse to serve women if they were not accompanied by men. Here we have two women enjoying a full pint and each other’s company.

“She doesn’t mock her subjects at all – she paints people who unapologetically occupy spaces. She celebrates her subjects and we think there’s something very important and radical and joyful about that.”

In the “Process and Practice” section, Cook’s precise working methods are revealed. I mined the media—from local TV news to newspapers—for topics and inspiration.

The ‘Influences and Influences’ section highlights how Cook drew on sources ranging from ‘raunchy’ coastal postcards to the works of Amedeo Modigliani and Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

Jemima Laing, deputy leader of Plymouth City Council, said Cook had put the place on the cultural map. “For more than 40 years, she has painted our sailors, our shoppers, our pubs and our people, always with warmth, humor and genuine affection. While critics dismissed her, audiences loved her, and now it’s time for her to get the long-overdue and much-deserved critical appreciation,” she said.

Larger-than-life-sized sculptures of some of her characters will appear around the city: “It’s a love letter from Plymouth to an artist who never stopped celebrating us,” Ling said.

Julian Spalding, writer and former museum director, said he was delighted to celebrate Cook. He said: “It is one of the glories of British painting, where the modern William Hogarth and Thomas Rowlandson came together in one painting.”

“I once asked her if she wanted to draw something that bothered her. She said, ‘No. If I thought it would make any difference, I might do it. But I don’t do that.” It is the joy that pushed her to create.”