Sir Peter Blake CBE, RDI, RA

British born 1932

Godfather of British Pop Art Sir Peter Blake has been collaborating with CCA since 2003, producing spectacular original prints. His work crosses all generational divides, and inspires great respect from younger artists such as Damien Hirst, Gavin Turk, Pure Evil and Tracey Emin. Knighted in 2002, an honorary doctor of the Royal College of Art, and with his work represented in major collections throughout the world, Sir Peter Blake truly is a grandee of British Art.
Many of his works feature found printed materials such as photographs, comic strips or advertising texts, combined with bold geometric patterns and the use of primary colours. Blake is renowned for his connection with the music industry, having produced iconic album covers for the Beatles, Paul Weller, The Who, and Oasis.
Sir Peter Blake was born in Dartford, Kent in 1932 and studied initially at Gravesend Technical College from 1949-51. After a period of national service in the Royal Air Force, Blake attended the Royal College of Art, graduating in 1956. Upon graduation he won the Leverhulme Research Award to study popular art, this allowed him to travel and study folk art in countries such as Belgium, France, Italy and Spain: his grand tour. It was around the period of his return to the UK that Blake's style evolved from the classical naturalistic oil works of his early period to the collaged works containing images of movie stars, musicians and pin-up girls that we most readily associate him with (however, Blake as always retained the naturalistic strain of his work and has continued to work in oil on canvas throughout his career).
In 1961 Blake won the John Moores Award for his work Self Portrait with Badges, and was also featured in Ken Russell's BBC film on Pop Art 'Pop Goes the Easel', which first brought him to wide popular attention.
He was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1981, and a CBE in 1983. There was a major retrospective of his work Now We Are 64, at the National Gallery in 1996, as well as at Tate Liverpool in 2007. Sir Peter has designed fabrics for Stella McCartney, as well as the carpets in the new Supreme Court. In 2012 he has re-designed the BRIT award statuettes and produced a portrait of the the Queen commissioned by the Radio Times to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee (which appeared on its cover).