20. Beryl Cook at 100

Beryl Cook (1926-2008) was a British self-taught painter who though widely popular in her own lifetime was largely, and vehemently, dismissed by art critics. 100 years after her birth and 50 years since she skyrocketed to national fame after her first exhibition in 1975, the moment is ripe for reassessing her career and place within art history.

Recent institutional presentations have offered new approaches to her work. In 2024 Studio Voltaire in London paired Beryl Cook with another self-taught artist, Tom of Finland. Then, in 2026, her centenary year, The Box in Plymouth staged a monumental survey of her work that became the most reviewed and attended exhibition in institutional history drawing record-breaking audiences from around the UK resulting in what the press coined ‘Beryl-mania’. By contextualising her practice within the socio-economic climate of 1970s-00s Britain, presenting new research drawn from the artist’s archive and evidencing her artistic process for the first time, that exhibition presented a needed reappraisal of Cook’s career.

Despite hundreds of press articles written about Cook over the past 5 decades, research on Cook is largely absent from the scholarly record. However, new perspectives and approaches are emerging, and this session offers the opportunity to build a scholarly discourse around Cook. We invite papers that offer fresh insights into this understudied artist especially those offering understandings of her work through lenses of class, gender, sexuality, and place.

Papers will be followed by a roundtable discussion with curator of The Box exhibition, Terah Walkup, and author of Beryl Cook’s new biography, Hilary Bracegirdle.

Themes: 20th Century, reappraisal, Beryl Cook

Additional format comment: Papers will be followed by a roundtable discussion with curator of The Box exhibition, Terah Walkup, and author of Beryl Cook’s new biography, Hilary Bracegirdle.

Lead Convenor: Terah Walkup, The Box, Plymouth, United Kingdom

To submit a Paper to this Session, please follow the guidance on our website and complete the AAH 2027 Call for Papers Proposal Submission Form.