Beryl Cook
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Beryl Cook, OBE (born 10 September 1926 is an English artist, who makes comical paintings of fat people. She had no formal training and did not take up painting until middle age.
Early life
Beryl Cook was born in 1926 in Surrey, England, one of four sisters. She attended Kendrick School, Reading, a selective girls school in the centre of the town. Beryl left school at fourteen, showing little talent for painting, and worked in a variety of jobs. Moving to London in 1943, she became a showgirl in a touring production of The Gypsy Princess. She also worked in the fashion industry.[1]
In 1946 she married her childhood friend John, who was in the Merchant Navy. When he retired from the sea, they briefly ran a pub. Their son John was born in 1950, and the following year they left to live in Southern Rhodesia. One day she picked up some paints, belonging to her son, and started a picture. She carried on doing so, using various materials, painting on scraps of wood, fire screens and a breadboard. An early painting is Bowling Ladies.
In 1963, the Cooks returned to England to live in Cornwall, where she began to paint seriously. They moved to Plymouth, a port city, where they ran a busy theatrical boarding house in the summer months. They enjoyed going to local bars and watching flamboyant drag acts. She concentrated on painting in the winter months, recreating her personal views of Plymouth in oils on wooden panels. An antique dealer friend persuaded her to let him try and sell a few, and, to her surprise, they sold quickly.
Painting
Bernard Samuels of the Plymouth Art Centre became aware of this "local phenomenon",[citation needed] and in 1975 he convinced her to have an exhibition. The show resulted in a cover feature in the Sunday Times Magazine, followed by her first exhibition in London in 1976 at the Portal Gallery.
In 1979 a film was made about Beryl for LWT’s South Bank Show, where she discussed her work with Melvyn Bragg.
In 1995 she was made an OBE.
Her contribution to The Queen’s Golden Jubilee, The Royal Couple featured in the Golden Jubilee Exhibition, May 2002, at Art London, Chelsea.
Tiger Aspect made two half-hour animated films of Beryl Cook’s women who meet at Plymouth’s Dolphin Pub. Bosom Pals has a voice cast of Rosemary Leach, Alison Steadman and Timothy Spall. The programmes were broadcast on BBC1 in 2004 and won several animation awards.[citation needed]
Channel 4 News featured a short film of Cook and her work in early 2005, the first in over 20 years. She also appeared in ‘Art School’ on BBC2.
In 2006, Portal Gallery held a comprehensive exhibition of Cook’s work to celebrate her 80th birthday.
A retrospective exhibition of her work was curated by Peter Doroshenko at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in 2007.
Plymouth University will be mounting a major retrospective in November 2008.
She lives and works in Plymouth.
Personality and influences
Cook is a shy and private person, often depicting the flamboyant and extrovert characters she would like to be.[citation needed] She has an almost photographic memory.[citation needed] She has travelled widely, therebye finding new material for her work. The early local scenes have expanded to Buenos Aries, New York, Cuba, Paris and Barcelona.
Cook admires the work of the English visionary artist Stanley Spencer, his influence evident in her compositions and bold bulky figures. Another influence was Edward Burra, who painted sleazy cafes, nightclubs, gay bars, sailors and prostitutes, although, unlike Burra, she does not paint the sinister aspects of scenes. She was described by Victoria Wood as "Rubens with jokes".[2]
Museums
Glasgow's Gallery of Modern Art has three paintings by Cook. She is represented in Plymouth City Art Gallery, Durham Art Gallery and Bristol Art Gallery.
References
- ^ The world of Beryl Cook, artist, Isabel Albiston, Telegraph magazine, July 14th 2007
- ^ Roll out the Beryls - Interview, Rachel Campbell-Johnston, The Times, 29 August, 2006
External links
- Art critics attack Beryl Cook at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art
- Article about Baltic exhibition
- Short biography from the BBC
- Please use a more specific IMDb template. See the documentation for available templates.
- Article on Beryl Cook in The Guardian
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