Peter Blake

* 1932 Dartfort/Kent

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.

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