Beryl Cook, the self-taught artist who found fame in the 1970s for her vibrant, bawdy depictions of working-class English life, is being celebrated in her hometown of Plymouth with a centenary exhibition that captures the sheer delight of her paintings.
Titled “Beryl Cook: Pride and Joy,” the exhibition at The Box in Plymouth showcases the artist’s signature style – plump, caricatured figures engaged in raucous, often risqué scenes of pub life, cabaret, and private revelry. From drunken karaoke sessions to dominatrices wielding whips, Cook’s paintings offer a saucy, unapologetic take on the pleasures and follies of the human experience.
Yet, the show also reveals the artist’s deeper emotional range, with intimate portrayals of her family – her son and husband felting a roof, her granddaughter on a swing, her daughter-in-law bringing mugs of tea. These scenes, rendered with genuine warmth and tenderness, demonstrate that Cook’s art was not merely about outrageous humour, but a celebration of the extraordinary in the ordinary.
“While every serious artist in the country was trying to document the bleakness of working-class English life, Cook was out there saying: ‘Cheer up, mate, have a pint!'” writes critic Eddy Frankel. Indeed, Cook’s body-positive depictions allowed people to see their lives – whether sailor or stripper, gay or straight – reflected in art, a stark contrast to the prevailing narratives of grim poverty and misery.
Alongside Cook’s work, a companion exhibition at the Karst gallery features contemporary artists whose practices share thematic or aesthetic links, from Olivia Sterling’s satirical cartoons to Flo Brooks’ celebrations of LGBTQ lives. Together, these shows offer a vibrant, multifaceted tribute to an artist who found joy in the most ordinary of moments, and insisted that the everyday is, in fact, extraordinary.
“Beryl Cook: Pride and Joy” runs at The Box in Plymouth until 31 May, inviting visitors to immerse themselves in the exuberant, unapologetic world of one of Britain’s most beloved folk artists.