Celebrated for his work on iconic album covers including Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Peter Blake (b. 1932) is one of the first and most widely known British Pop artists. Beginning in the 1950s, he rose to prominence with his hybridized approach to collage and painting that intermingles fine art, art historical references, and pop culture in both content and form. Blake’s early On the Balcony (1955-1957) appears to be a collage but is entirely painted, with twenty-seven different references to “on the balcony,” from Edouard Manet’s painting The Balcony (1868) to imagery gleaned from mass media. Blake has continued to fuse high and low influences throughout his decades-long career and was knighted for his contribution to art in 2002.
People say, "Why do you paint?" and I say, to make magic.
Peter Blake
Auction Results Peter Blake
