Artists » Sir Peter Blake
Sir Peter Blake was born in Dartford Kent in 1932 and studied initially at Gravesend Technical College from 1949-51. Blake attended the Royal College of Art, graduating in 1956. Upon graduation he won the Leverhulme Research Award to study popular art, allowing 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.
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. In 1969 Blake left London to live in the West Country where he was a founding member of the Brotherhood of Ruralists in 1975.
Blake moved back to Chiswick in 1979, where his work reverted to the earlier popular culture references. He still resides and works in Chiswick, maintaining a prolific output of work. 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 2000.