Name: Sir Peter Blake
Genres: Pop art
Year of Birth: 1932
Nationality: British

Artist statement:
The legendary Sir Peter Blake was born in 1932 in Dartford, Kent and studied first at the Gravesend School of Art, and then the Royal College of Art from 1953 to 1956. His contemporaries there included Bridget Riley and Frank Auerbach. He graduated in 1956 and returned to teach from 1964 to 1976, where he met then-student Ian Dury who remained a friend throughout his life.

Blake was included in group exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Arts and had his first solo show in 1960. It was with the 'Young Contemporaries' exhibition of 1961, where he was exhibited alongside David Hockney and R.B. Kitaj, that Blake was first identified with the then emerging British Pop Art movement. Subsequently one of Britain’s best known Pop Artists, Blake’s paintings used imagery from advertisements, music hall entertainment, and wrestlers, often including collaged elements. Blake won the (1961) John Moores junior award for his work Self Portrait with Badges, and was featured along with Pauline Boty, Derek Boshier and Peter Phillips in Ken Russell's film on pop art, Pop Goes the Easel, which was broadcast on BBC television in 1962. From 1963 Blake was represented by Robert Fraser which placed him at the centre of Swinging London and brought him into contact with leading figures of popular culture.

A prolific artist, Blake produced a wide variety of work, including several album sleeves, most notably. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which he designed with his then-wife Jann Haworth. In the early 1970s, he made a set of watercolours to illustrate Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, and in 1975 was a founder of the Brotherhood of Ruralists.

Blake was made a Royal Academician in 1981, a CBE in 1983, and in 2002 was knighted.

Peter Blake & The Art Bus