They are hung alternately, cheek to cheek, in a modest but thorough show at Studio Voltaire in London, two bodies of work that represent two seemingly disparate slices of 20th-century life.
A strange pair of bedfellows, one reveals a selection from the “dirty drawings” of leather grandaddy Touko Laaksonen (1920-1991) AKA Tom of Finland, and the other paintings by British B&B-landlady-turned-national-treasure, Beryl Cook (1926-2008). This pairing seems obvious only after the fact, but this exhibition demonstrates several important correspondences between the two artists.
Raunchy, lolzy, guilt-free pleasure permeates the show. The two artists reveal people engaging in earthly delights: drinking, dancing, flirting, stripping and all manner of sex acts with breezy, gay abandon. All of these activities are distilled through two very particular ways of selecting from and configuring the world.
