Peter Blake: Collage

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The British painter and illustrator Peter Thomas Blake attended the Gravesend Technical College and School of Art from 1946-1951 and then moved to the Royal College of Art in London, where he left in 1956. His early work was dominated by two major themes: Fantastic scenes from the circus world and naturalistic paintings with autobiographical features. Typical is the reference to the popular imagery of event posters, which Blake combines with portraits. In addition to circus figures, the painter often depicts children who are shown reading comic books. Both types of pictures are pioneering for English Pop Art in terms of both style and content. A Leverhulme scholarship enabled Blake to travel to Europe from 1956 to 1957 and familiarize herself with current artistic trends. Around 1959, inspired by the reproductions of Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, he began to paint collage-like images of pop musicians and film stars and to produce assemblages from used materials, postcards and others. In addition to collage, Blake also works with the creative medium of imitation, creating painted collages, imitation pin-up walls and spin doors, enlarged painted postcard motifs, and painterly adaptations of posters. He celebrated his greatest success with his cover design for the Beatles album 'Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' (1967). In 1975 Blake was one of the founding members of the Brotherhood of Ruralists. Under the influence of the artist community and the rural environment of his residence in Wellow am Avon, his visual language changed. The members hope for new artistic impulses and moral renewal from life in the countryside. Like the Pre-Raphaelites, they strive for an aesthetic penetration of all areas of life. Blake turned to themes from childhood, fairy tales and the world of the elves, which he depicted in a realistic manner using techniques of the old masters.

One of his most famous works is On the Balcony (1955-1957). What makes the work unique is that it looks like a collage, but on further inspection the viewer can see it was painted by hand. This is considered a major early work in the Pop art movement. On the Balcony. (1955–1957) Peter Blake. Tate Gallery, London. 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. Knighted in 2002, an honorary doctor of the Royal College of Art, and with his work represented in major collections throughout the world, Blake's influence is present in the portfolios ofmany highly acclaimed artists of our times. 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.”Blake has said, “You simply can’t make art without having that history of art behind you and I think if you asked any artist, they would always say they had learned from previous art. Perhaps I show that more than most in that I often appropriate art and quote from it.” Carpet Designed by Peter Blake for the British Supreme Court; Matt Brown from London, England, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons Peter Blake continues to create art today. There have been major retrospectives of his work. One was held at the Tate, in London, in 1983. Another was held at Tate Liverpool, in 2008.

The cultural mingling in Blake’s recent works is even more eclectic. In one collage, set at the Acropolis in Athens, three coach parties are arriving at the same time. ‘One is Joseph Cornell’s group, which is rather disparate, including Tarzan. Another coach contains women artists – an outing of Frida Kahlo, Pauline Boty and lots of others. The third group is famous blondes, which developed during the making of the collages. It’s headed by Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield – but as another famous blonde came along, I’d add them to the group, so there’s Blondie and Lady Gaga too.’ This work is part of the series Joseph Cornell’s Holiday, which is dedicated to the great American exponent of collage. ‘Cornell is a great hero of mine,’ Blake says. ‘He loved the idea of travel, but never went anywhere. […] But Cornell was extremely knowledgeable about Europe. The other important aspect was that he never consummated a relationship but loved women. He fell in love constantly. So I thought: he had a pretty rotten time, let’s give him a nice holiday!’ The 2021 Turner prize nominees announced on Friday are all collectives who have helped to “inspire social change through art”. Their artworks include low-tide dining on an oyster bed, a 24-hour rave and a walk through a Scottish glen. Cornell is to be found stroking a dog in Piazza San Marco, rowing a boat in Denmark, admiring the view in Capri and meeting Lewis Carroll in the Oxford garden where he wrote the Alice books. “There’ll be 20 or 30 of the big ones in the central room,” says Blake, “including an early one of him leaving New York and meeting [the photographer] Diane Arbus to say goodbye. She’s with all the subjects of her photos – I love her work.” Blake also gives Cornell a love life. “He fell in love with women all the time, from a waitress in New York to Lauren Bacall, and was always buying them presents, but he never consummated a relationship. He was fascinated by love, but he never made love.” In “Greece, Athens. ‘The Butterfly Man Comes Out Of Retirement To Stage A Fly-Past For 3 Coach Parties – Women Artists, Famous Blondes And Joseph Cornell’s Wanderlust Tour” (2017), Cornell is at the Acropolis where famous blondes such as Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, Blondie and Lady Gaga “arrange themselves on the steps, showing off”, says Blake with glee. 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. From his early paintings depicting assembled fragments of popular imagery, to his found-object constructions and his most recent inkjet print collages, Blake has broadened the scope of what collage can be and communicate.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.

Winning a scholarship that enabled him to travel around Europe, Peter Blake spent his time absorbing popular culture at bullfights, wrestling matches and the circus. A Brief Look at Pop Art At the age of 70, Blake became only the third British painter to be knighted, in a ceremony conducted by Prince Charles (because the Queen was on a state visit to Canada at the time). After the honor was bestowed, Blake said, “I’m very excited mainly because there are so few knighthoods to painters. It’s usually sculptors and architects. I’m very happy to get it on behalf of all painters. I left college in 1956 so I’ve had almost 50 years as a painter. That’s why this is so nice.” Blake was always at the forefront of the Pop art movement; today, he’s often referred to as the “Godfather of British Pop Art.” But just as it was becoming an international sensation at the end of the 1960s, the artist moved on. Along with Haworth and their daughter, he relocated from London to a small village near Bath. Soon, the wrestlers and strippers of his earlier works were replaced by fairies and mythology, dreams and fantasy. 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.” Cathie Pilkington, keeper of the Royal Academy Schools, said: “Although academic life drawing is no longer a compulsory subject, many of our students use drawing as a central part of their practice.”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. The Victorian past is also present in Peter Blake’s work. This includes symbols such as fairies, childhood stories, and even letters from Victorian word games, are added into his works.

British Library Sound Archive: National Life Stories Artists' Lives: Peter Blake interviewed by Linda Sandino between April 2003 and February 2005 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). 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 Group In March 2020, Blake's poster London Stands Together was distributed in every copy of London's Evening Standard newspaper. [23] Honours [ edit ]

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to 10 (Collages, Constructions, Drawings & Sculpture) & The Marcel Duchamp Paintings, Waddington Galleries, London