Sir Peter Blake

Sir Peter Blake was interested in art from a young age and attended Gravesend Technical College for three years before completing his National Service in the Royal Air Force. He carried on his studies at the RCA, and upon completion Peter Blake was awarded a scholarship which took him travelling across the globe for a year.

After Peter Blake returned from his travels, he became enthused by the work of Rauschenberg and Johns especially by the way that they used reproductions within their work. Peter Blake began to use elements of collage within his work, with reference to the world of film, television and celebrity and posters or assemblage. Blake would often use fundamentals of a poster or icon and paint alongside them to change the composition.

In 1967, what was to become his most famous work, the Beatles Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover, was commissioned. This image is still referred to within accounts of British Pop Art history as a seminal piece of Pop Art. Peter Blake links with popular culture and music in particular have continued throughout his career, and he has also produced posters for Live Aid and other album covers, such as Paul Wellers Stanley Road.

Peter Blake has exhibited widely throughout his career and has also taught at many esteemed institutions, including St.Martin's School of Art and the Royal College. Peter Blake is a Royal Academician and received a CBE in 1983.