Image of Beryl Cook's painting 'Satin Dresses' picturing three women wearing coloured satin dresses

Satin Dresses, Roundtable Discussion

With Jennifer Jasmine White with Linsey Young, James Boaden and Nathalie Olah

Writer and researcher Jennifer Jasmine White convenes a round table discussion considering women and working class femininity in the work of Beryl Cook.

I like men but I admire women. They seem to me so game, so resilient, so willing to have a go in life. Take the bar that I usually go to. It’s a working class area and women don’t have a lot, some are on their own and finding it tough .... They get dressed up in their best with lots of paint and jewels and out they go, determined to have a good time, to laugh .... I don’t see that same spirit in men, the same brand of gutsy, defiant humour and it’s that humour I want to transmit. – Beryl Cook, 1981

The humour inherent to Cook’s paintings made her immensely popular, but also hardened critical responses to her work. Her wry depictions of everyday themes were framed by establishment figures as unserious. Such perceptions tend to overlook Cook’s work as an astute record of social interactions and life. She was an artist deeply interested in people and places, and her paintings build a self-contained world that is convincingly grounded in actual experience.

Tensions between humour and observation are particularly played out in her portrayals of women. Cook’s images of women are visually powerful. Heightening the details of their bodies, dresses, and expressions, the women in her works are both class-coded and engage with female-oriented forms of camp. Though often playful, Cook’s women resist ‘polite’ femininity: they are unruly and carnivalesque, fully and unapologetically taking up space.

White is joined by curator Linsey Young (Curator of British Contemporary Art, Tate Britain and curator of Women In Revolt! Art and Activism in the UK 1970–1990), James Boaden (Senior Lecturer in Modern and Contemporary Art, University of York) and author Nathalie Olah.

A limited number of concessionary tickets are available for this event. Please contact info@studiovoltaire.org to enquire.

  1. Jennifer Jasmine White is a writer from the north-west of England. She is currently a
    doctoral researcher at the University of Manchester, where she is working on the
    intersections between working-class femininity and experimental forms. This
    research considers authors and visual artists such as Ann Quin, Sarah Lucas, and
    Shelagh Delaney: its ultimate aim is to rethink the legacy and possibilities of Britishsocial
    realism, with a particular focus on the surreal or fantastic.

    Jennifer has written on culture and politics for publications such as the Financial
    Times, New Statesman, Tribune, and Polyester Zine. She is also the host of Writing
    Class, a podcast which attempts to reinsert questions of class and socioeconomic
    into contemporary literary discourse.

  2. Linsey Young has held the position of Curator of British Contemporary Art at Tate Britain since 2016. In this role she has delivered commissions with artists such as Pablo Bronstein and Anthea Hamilton and was lead curator of the Turner Prize in 2016, 2018 and 2024. In 2019 she commissioned and curated Charlie Prodger’s presentation at the Venice Biennale. Young curated the major touring exhibition and publication project Women In Revolt! Art and Activism in the UK 1970–1990. The first of its kind, the exhibition is a wide-ranging exploration of feminist art by over 100 women artists working in the UK.

  3. Nathalie Olah is an author with an interest in class and propaganda. Her books include Bad Taste (Dialogue Books, 2023) an exploration of the intersection between consumerism, class, desire and power; Sarah Lucas: Happy Gas (Tate Publishing, 2023) and Steal As Much As You Can (Repeater Books, 2019). Her writing has been published widely in periodicals including ArtReview, The Guardian, Tribune, Jacobin and The Times Literary Supplement.

  4. James Boaden is Senior Lecturer in Modern and Contemporary art at University of York, with a focus on American art from the mid-twentieth century to the present. His research looks in particular at the crossover between experimental film culture and the art world in the mid Twentieth Century. James has published essays in journals including Oxford Art Journal, Art History and Tate Papers. He has organised film screenings at BFI Bankside, Tate Modern, Nottingham Contemporary, and The Hepworth Wakefield.

  5. Beryl Cook, Girls in Satin Dresses, c.1998. Image courtesy of the Beryl Cook Estate.

Standard tickets £7.50

Tuesday 20 August 2024, 7–8 pm

Studio Voltaire
1A Nelsons Row
London SW4 7JR


Open Wednesday–Sunday, 10 am–5 pm.

Registered Charity No: 1082221. Registered Company No: 03426509. VAT No: GB314268026