This bold catalogue brings together the work of two cultural icons for the very first
\ntime: Beryl Cook (1926-2008) and Tom of Finland (1920-1991). It was inspired by the
\n2024 exhibition Beryl Cook \/ Tom of Finland at Studio Voltaire in London.
\nBeryl Cook was a painter renowned for her exuberant style and descriptions of everyday
\nlife. Her work captures the social milieu of the areas she lived in and visited, notably
\nPlymouth. Her most enduring images are of larger-than-life women carousing in
\nnightclubs, eating in caf\u00e9s or enjoying ribald hen parties, rendered in graphic and
\ncolourful forms. Cook’s work came to prominence in the mid-1970s and she quickly
\nbecame known as one of Britain’s best-loved artists, highly recognised for her distinctive
\nworks, which are both celebratory and provocative.
\nTom of Finland’s pioneering depictions of homosexual machismo in his images of
\nbikers, soldiers, cowboys, sailors and labourers broadly represent queer, leather and
\nmuscle communities. A master draughtsman, he used his works to give form to an
\nimaginative universe that, in turn, helped fuel real-world liberation movements and had
\nsignificant influence on a wide range of cultural figures including the Village People,
\nFreddie Mercury, Jean Paul Gaultier and Robert Mapplethorpe.
\nBeryl Cook \/ Tom of Finland puts their work into conversation for the first time. The
\npairing is perhaps unexpected, yet immediate and compelling relationships between
\ntheir practices are evident. Fundamentally, both artists employed a sustained and
\ncoherent way of hyper-realising the body in images that celebrate pleasure and deny
\nshame. Together, their works reveal interconnected ideas surrounding sexuality, gender,
\ntaste and class.
\nArtist and writer Huw Lemmey has contributed an incisive new essay exploring
\nthe queer contexts inherent to Tom of Finland’s work, but that also finds latent
\nresonance in Cook’s paintings of gay bars and shapely women. He further considers
\nthe commercial forms of distribution that made their complex bodies of works highly
\naccessible.
\nSpanning five decades of paintings, drawings and archival materials, this companion
\ncatalogue contributes to new readings of the artists’ practices and their enduring impact
\non popular culture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This bold 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 was inspired by the 2024 exhibition Beryl Cook \/ Tom of Finland at Studio Voltaire in London. Beryl Cook was a painter renowned for her exuberant style and descriptions of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":58026,"template":"","meta":[],"product_cat":[2948],"product_tag":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n