Entertainment

Tate to bring Beryl Cook into the collection at last

Hoi-Ling MakPublished 20m ago2 min readBased on 5 sources
Tate to bring Beryl Cook into the collection at last
Photo by Paul Gillett / CC BY-SA 2.0

Tate in London is buying a Beryl Cook.

The museum is in the process of acquiring one of her paintings for its collection, The Art Newspaper reported on 8 October 2026. The paper cited Financial Times reporting of a statement from a Tate spokesperson. An acquisition, the formal step that brings a work into a museum's holdings, decides how it is stored, lent and shown.

It is a sharp turn.

Former Tate director Nicholas Serota reportedly said in the 1990s that "there will be no Beryl Cooks in the Tate Modern." Tate Modern in London is Tate's gallery for international modern and contemporary art. The remark has followed Cook's reputation ever since.

The news comes after a busy year for Cook in Plymouth, the Devon port city she called home. The Box gallery in Plymouth staged an exhibition of her work earlier in 2026. Two new shows in the city looked at her themes and influences, The Art Newspaper reported in January, in an article headlined "'Rubens with jokes': UK exhibitions place Beryl Cook in the art historical canon".

One of those exhibitions was "Beryl Cook: Pride and Joy" at The Box in Plymouth. The show celebrated the life, work and legacy of the painter. It marked 100 years since Cook's birth.

Her paintings are also out in the open this month. House of Voltaire, the retail arm of Studio Voltaire, is presenting a mile-long open-air installation at Bicester Village in Oxfordshire. The display uses life-size cutout characters and large-scale murals drawn from Cook's paintings. It runs until 25 October.

Discussion about her place has been building. ArtReview published a piece titled "Beryl Cook, From Kitsch to Canon" in 2024. On 8 October 2026, The Art Newspaper asked the question directly: "Will Beryl Cook finally make it into Tate Modern?"

What makes this stand out is the wait. For three decades that 1990s remark has shaped how people talk about where Cook belongs. A Tate acquisition changes the paperwork. That paperwork decides who gets to stand in front of the work next.

Related Articles