Why critics scorned Beryl Cook’s ‘saucy’ paintings

Jolly, kitsch and bawdy, Beryl Cook’s paintings were loved by the British public but derided by the art establishment. One hundred years after her birth, a new exhibition argues for a radical reassessment of her work and legacy.

By any measure, Beryl Cook’s career arc was impressive. A self-taught artist, she didn’t pick up a paintbrush until her late 30s and was 49 when she had her first exhibition. But by the time she died in 2008, aged 81, Cook had created more than 500 works and become one of Britain’s most popular artists. 

Cook’s work wasn’t just prolific, it was ubiquitous. Anyone who grew up in the UK in the past 50 years will have seen her paintings. Perhaps not in a gallery, but on greetings cards, tea towels, prints, calendars, postage stamps and drinks coasters. Her characters were even turned into a BBC cartoon, Bosom Pals. Cook’s signature figures – ordinary working-class people, often female and ample of flesh – are instantly recognisable. And they are always having fun; in pubs and cafes, on the beach, at karaoke nights, in the bingo hall.

Yet despite her commercial success, Beryl Cook has been widely ignored by the art establishment, her work dismissed as jolly, kitsch, saucy and bawdy. Fun perhaps, but nothing to be taken seriously. When critics have turned their attention to her, the reviews have often been scathing. The late art critic Brian Sewell said of Cook’s work:  “It has a kind of vulgar streak which has nothing to do with art.”