Feeding The Tortoises by Beryl Cook. Courtesy of www.ourberylcook.com © John Cook 2025

Two Plymouth exhibitions mark the centenary and legacy of Britain’s most popular painter

100 years after her birth, Beryl Cook (1926-2008) once named Britain's most popular painter is finally receiving the serious artistic recognition that eluded her during her lifetime thanks to two companion exhibitions that open in Plymouth this weekend.

The Box Plymouth’s landmark exhibition, Beryl Cook: Pride and Joy (24 January-31 May 2026) takes a fresh look at Cook's significance as a chronicler of everyday life during a period of great social change in Britain. Discord & Harmony (24 January-18 April 2026) at KARST brings together a group of contemporary artists who share the same radically generous approach to representing the everyday.

Beryl Cook: Pride and Joy

Pride and Joy is the most extensive exhibition of Cook’s work to date. With loans from Tate, National Portrait Gallery, Glasgow Life, Government Art Collection, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Dulwich Picture Gallery, Holburne Museum, the Beryl Cook Estate, and private collectors, it features over 80 paintings alongside rarely seen sculptures, textiles, and unprecedented access to her personal archive of thousands of photographs, sketches, and correspondence.

It comes at a pivotal moment: 2026 marks both Cook's centenary and 50 years since the 1976 Sunday Times feature that launched her career following her first exhibition at Plymouth Arts Centre in 1975. She produced an estimated 500 paintings during her lifetime, many of which have become instantly recognisable through their commercial success. But, although her colourful paintings made her beloved by millions, critics consistently dismissed her work as mere kitsch.

Pride and Joy argues for a radical reassessment. Through subjects such as drag queens, working-class women at bingo halls, plus-size bodies celebrating their physicality and LGBTQ+ nightlife, Cook documented communities and identities that were actively marginalised with genuine affection, technical mastery and unflinching honesty. Her work from the 1970s to 2000s captures working-class joy, body positivity, and queer culture with a sophistication that's only now being fully recognised.

"Beryl Cook wasn't painting caricatures," said Terah Walkup, Curator at The Box. "She was documenting communities and identities that were actively marginalised, and she did it with genuine affection, technical mastery, and unflinching honesty."

The exhibition is organised into four sections:

● Identity and Representation looks at Cook's radical approach to her subjects and her unique style of self-portraiture.

● Chronicles of Everyday Life explores Cook's phenomenal observational skills and attention to detail as she documented working-class spaces and everyday life in a changing Britain.

● Process and Practice highlights Cook’s meticulous research and the way she actively mined different media in ways that feel remarkably contemporary. This section will also include rarely seen sculptures and textile work that demonstrate her versatility beyond painting.

● Influences and Impact shows how her work was inspired by and referenced a broad range of visual culture - from popular postcards to historical painters like Stanley Spencer and Edward Burra.

Cook moved to Plymouth in 1968, and the city became her primary subject for 40 years. The Lockyer Tavern, Tinside Lido, Plymouth streets and characters populate her most celebrated works, including iconic paintings Bingo, The Lockyer Tavern, and Back Bar of the Lockyer Tavern which document Plymouth pub life with the same attention historical painters gave to aristocratic subjects.

"Plymouth wasn't incidental to Beryl's art, it was fundamental," said Victoria Pomery, CEO of The Box. "She painted the city with the same seriousness that Sir Joshua Reynolds painted portraits. That's a radical act."

Alongside the main exhibition, Dear Beryl – a display featuring highlights from Cook’s correspondence with art critics, friends, and fans – will be on show in The Box’s Active Archives gallery. Four large-scale 3D sculptures of characters from Cook’s Sabotage, The Market, Sailors and Seagulls and Tom Dancingpaintings are set to appear across the city, and a series of events including curator tours, half term workshops and a Drag Night will explore the themes in Cook’s work in more detail.

Discord & Harmony

Presented concurrently with Pride and Joy, KARST’s Discord & Harmony highlights artists who, like Cook, champion community, individuality, and moments of joy among people too often overlooked by art history.

Whilst many of the works by Eric Bainbridge, Flo Brooks, Rhys Coren, Anthea Hamilton, Emma Hart, Mark Leckey, Patrizio Di Massimo, Emily Pope, Lucy Stein and Olivia Sterling demonstrate a stylistic departure from Cook’s paintings, they are united by her legacy of open-mindedness, humour and irreverence.

Through a range of media including painting, sculpture and video, the featured contemporary artists reflect on themes such as working-class identity, body-positivity and queer visibility, echoing Cook’s insistence that ordinary life is worthy of serious and celebratory attention. The exhibition features 29 works in total, including six by Cook.

The exhibition’s title quotes Margaret Thatcher’s acceptance speech following the 1979 election in which she ushered in an era of extreme social and economic transformation. Most of the artists in Discord & Harmony either grew up during the Thatcher years of the 1980s and 1990s, where the individual was prioritised over community, or were born afterwards into a radically changed Britain. Their works hold a mirror up to a Britain in which the reverberations of this era continue to shape our daily lives.

“Discord & Harmony explores the resonances between contemporary art and the worlds Beryl Cook created in her work,” said Ben Borthwick, Head of Programme at KARST. “Cook once said she only painted things she was excited by, and what excited her was the joy in life. Discord & Harmony similarly hones in on similar moments of joy, passion, and intimacy, whether it’s music, dance, ritual, family, friends or community. I wanted to bring together artists who share Cook’s generosity, inviting us to experience their work and the worlds they depict without judgment.”

Discord & Harmony Curator Tours with Ben Borthwick will take place at KARST on 30 January, 6 March and 17 April from 1-2pm.

"Beryl Cook's centenary year is an appropriate moment to celebrate her significant influence and impact,” said Victoria Pomery, CEO at The Box. “We’re delighted that Discord & Harmony will consider her legacy for a generation of artists who are living and working today and that both exhibitions at The Box and KARST will demonstrate how Cook’s importance continues to grow.”