Peter Blake British, b. 1932
"I don't think artists should be sponsored. You should not rely on grants. You either make a success of your art or you don't. I worked as an artist for a number of years without making much money - I have never had any financial backing in that way" - Sir Peter Blake
Sir Peter Blake (b. 1932, Dartford, Kent) is a British painter, sculptor, draughtsman and printmaker. Often referred to as the 'Father of British Pop Art', his practice incorporates a range of styles, including folk art and collage. In 1946, Blake enrolled at Gravesend School of Art to study graphic design and began to collect popular art and ephemera.
After National Service, in 1953 Blake joined the Royal College of Art, London and studied alongside Robyn Denny, Leon Kosoff, Richard Smith and Joe Tilson. There, elements of popular culture began to enter Blake's painting, predating American Pop art. Having seen the work of Kurt Schwitters he started to work in collage. After graduating in 1956, Blake won the Leverhulme Research Award and spent a year travelling abroad, the first time he had left the United Kingdom, visiting Holland, Belgium, France, Italy and Spain. Returning to London, Blake continued to appropriate pop culture icons and advertising imagery to create homages to the likes of Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot, Elvis Presley and professional wrestlers.
Blake's iconic 1961 Self-portrait with Badges, held the Tate Collection, shows Blake holding an Elvis album, dressed in American jeans, Converse trainers, and baseball badges. In 1967 Blake designed the iconic album cover for The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band with his first wife Jann Haworth and continued to be associated with the music world by designing album covers for other bands including The Who and Ian Drury and the Blockheads.
Blake was elected a member of the Royal Academy in 1981, had residency at the National Gallery, London 1993-96 and was knighted in 2002. 2013 saw the first presentation of Blakes's major series Dylan Thomas: Under Milk Wood, at National Museum Cardiff. In 2014, his 7 metre-wide montage mural Appearing at the Royal Albert Hall was unveiled and the Mersey ferry Snowdrop, commissioned by Liverpool Biennial, was launched in 2015. In 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, Blake designed the Evening Standard's London Stands Together poster and in December 2020 his Thank You London was illuminated on the advertising hoarding at Piccadilly Circus and projected on the facade of the National Gallery and the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral.
Peter Blake lives and works in London.
