Peter Blake: Collage

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Every aspect of his life is secreted here – his inspirations, his obsessions. It’s like walking into one of his artworks. It’s like stepping inside his head. Blake's consistent influx of references to current cultural trends remark upon the human experience within a constant stream of outward influences born within a mass media-laden society. Whether wrestlers, musicians, celebrities, works of literature, or nods to prior artworks, he fondly pays homage to the source materials of our modern mythmaking.

Sir Peter Thomas Blake CBE RDI RA (born 25 June 1932) is an English pop artist. He co-created the sleeve design for the Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. His other works include the covers for two of The Who's albums, the cover of the Band Aid single " Do They Know It's Christmas?", and the Live Aid concert poster. [1] Blake also designed the 2012 Brit Award statuette. [2] Blake constructed the scene alongside his wife Jann Haworth and art dealer Robert Fraser. Blake was keen to question the idea of the single omnipotent artist through artistic collaboration, and this also deliberately echoed creative attempts being made in the 1960s to find new ways of working across disciplines and social boundaries. Inscr. ‘P T Blake’ b.r.; a number of inscriptions are painted in trompe-l'œil, simulating collage of newspaper cuttings, magazine covers and badges. Upon return from his travels, Peter Blake taught art, as a way of still being able to practice his art skills and develop Pop art artworks, while paying his bills. Peter Blake and The Independent GroupThere was pop music in the Pop Art room, and Elgar in the Ruralist room. He recalls: “It was popular with some of the public, but a lot of people were quite angry about it!” In the same year, Blake was awarded the John Moores junior award, which boosted his image and recognition in the public eye. As a recognized pop artist, he was also featured in a pop art film by Ken Russell called Pop Goes the Easel, which aired in 1962. In 1963, the artist received representation by Robert Fraser, a London-based art dealer who was also recognized as “Groovy Bob”, which further elevated Blake’s status and opened up opportunities for the artist to gain acquaintance with other pioneering artists. However none of them have quite the same popular appeal as Peter Blake, a man who’s designed record sleeves for Paul Weller, The Beatles and Band Aid. Peter Blake’s “The First Real Target” was created with enamel on canvas and paper on board. It is part of the collection of the Tate, in London, in the United Kingdom.

It bothers me that a lot of artists can’t draw. There’s an awful lot of snobbery. If you draw well, they say ‘you’re an illustrator’ because they can’t draw themselves. Actually, a lot of illustrators are extraordinarily good.”

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Founded in 2003 by Frieze magazine, the international art journal, Frieze Art Fair has become an annual highlight of the British art scene (there’s also a parallel Frieze Art Fair in New York).

British Library Sound Archive: National Life Stories Artists' Lives: Peter Blake interviewed by Linda Sandino between April 2003 and February 2005 Following more than a year of Covid-related woes, the colour, jollity and visual inventiveness of this show of 100 works proves welcome indeed. Particularly likeable is the series known as “Joseph Cornell’s Holiday” (2017-19), comprising dozens of collages of the eponymous, late artist on a fictional trip. Cornell always longed to visit Europe, yet never left the United States. Using cut-out photographs of him, Blake depicts the American attending a street market in Amsterdam, for instance, or stroking a dog in Venice’s Piazza San Marco. A musicophilehimself, Blake painted several album sleeves. He designed the sleeve forSgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Bandwith his wifeJann Haworth, the American-born artist whom he married in 1963 and divorced in 1979. The artworkhas become an iconic work of pop art, much imitated and Blake's best-known work. Entering Blake’s studio for the first time is intensely evocative. Collage has always been central to his artworks, from Victoriana to Americana, and this is where he hoards his sources – fermenting folk memories into art. As he approached his 80th birthday, Blake undertook a project to recreate the Sgt. Pepper album cover with images of British cultural icons of his life that he most admires. [19] He stated: "I had a very long list of people who I wanted to go in but couldn't fit everyone in – I think that shows how strong British culture and its legacy of the last six decades is." [19] [20] The new version was created for a special birthday celebration of Blake's life at fashion designer Wayne Hemingway's Vintage festival at Boughton House, Northamptonshire in July 2012. [19]In stark contrast to his surroundings, Peter Blake is refreshingly conventional. His attitude is down to earth - all his eccentricity is in his art. Maggi Hambling, who has works in the British Museum, said: “People do whatever they want at art schools now. If you can draw the human figure, you can draw anything. There should be a life room in which people are encouraged to draw from the model.” Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album, Blake already understood the potential of collage as an art form as a student at the Royal College of Art in the 1950s, where his reputation as a founder and key proponent of the Pop Art movement was established. An avid collector, Blake’s collages combine junkyard treasures and found objects with images from popular culture. He revisits themes drawn from his childhood – the entertainments of the circus, the glamour of the cinema and the showmanship of the wrestling ring – weaving detailed, often humorous narratives. Blake was also commissioned by Dodo Editions in 1968 and produced a screen print on a tinplate called Babe Rainbow, which formed part of an edition of 10,000 artworks. By 1969, Blake relocated to an area near Bath and he began venturing into scenery based on English folklore and Shakespearean characters. The wake of the 1970s saw Blake create a series of watercolor paintings illustrating the English author, Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass (1871). For this project, he used Celia Wanless as a model for the fictional character, Alice. Ian Dury, whom he’d taught at art school, wrote a song for the exhibition, called Peter The Painter: “It’s a lovely song – it’s his homage to me, which is very nice.” Blake returned the compliment after Dury’s death, when he painted a portrait of Dury, for a tribute album in his honour.