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 is a prominent figure in the pop art movement.[1] Central to his paintings are his interest in images from popular culture which have infused his collages. In 2002 he was knighted at Buckingham Palace for his services to art.[1]
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Peter Blake was born in Dartford, Kent, on 25 June 1932. He was educated at the Gravesend Technical College school of art, and the Royal College of Art.[3]
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On the Balcony, 1955–1957, Tate Gallery
From the late 1950s, Blake's paintings included imagery from advertisements, music hall entertainment, and wrestlers, often including collaged elements. Blake was included in group exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Arts. In the "Young Contemporaries" exhibition of 1961 in which he exhibited alongside David Hockney and R. B. Kitaj, he was first identified with the emerging British Pop Art movement. Blake won the (1961) John Moores junior award for Self Portrait with Badges. He came to wider public attention when, along with Pauline Boty, Derek Boshier and Peter Phillips, he featured in Ken Russell's Monitor film on pop art, Pop Goes the Easel, broadcast on BBC television in 1962. From 1963, Blake was represented by Robert Fraser placing him at the centre of Swinging London and bringing him into contact with leading figures of popular culture. Blake had his first solo exhibition with Robert Fraser Gallery in 1965 and appeared on the front cover of LIFE International in a photograph by Lord Snowdon.[4] Blake was given the final exhibition held at Robert Fraser Gallery which closed in 1969. The same year, Blake had his first exhibition with Waddington Galleries, owned by Leslie Waddington who became his lifelong supporter and representative.[5] In 1999, Blake painted Leslie Waddington with Portrait of a Young Man by Hans Memling.[6]