Beryl Cook is famous for her large ladies and Touko Laaksonen (Tom of Finland) for his differently large men. I had always (it seems) been aware of Cook’s often amusing observation of life, but I had only once come across anything by Tom of Finland – a spicy Santa on a packet of coffee we had one Christmas, a few years ago.
I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I toddled off to Studio Voltaire. I hadn’t seen many of these particular Beryl Cook works, and I had most certainly never seen any of the Tom of Finland ones!
I think the juxtaposition of Cook’s vibrant colours and Laaksonen’s mostly monochrome is very clever, and the vitrines of both artists’ prep photos, notebooks etc showed how similar their methods were in some ways.
My favourite of all the Cook paintings is unusual in that it shows only feet.
I probably wouldn’t put a Tom of Finland picture on my wall, but if I were buying one for a friend, it would be this one, with the nice motorcycle.
The exhibition fills only one room of the gallery, but its associated merchandise fills half the gift shop. There are the usual tea towels and gift cards, along with exotica such as Beryl Cook chocolate and Tom of Finland condoms.
The gallery is very pleasant, with a good cafe and a nice outdoor space with a fountain. It is very accessible, very close to bus stops and not too far from Clapham station if you are fit and can walk uphill comfortably.
There was a lovely, knowledgeable meet-and-greeter at the door of this very nice, small gallery. She explained that the works are in some cases very explicit, which could be a useful trigger warning for the faint-hearted.
The exhibition is free.
musings 