Peter Blake is one of the leading British artists of the twentieth century. He was born in 1932 in Dartford and studied at Gravesend Technical College and School of Art from 1946 to 1951. He continued his studies at the Royal College of Art from 1953 to 1956, where he was one of the first British artists to produce works inspired by popular culture and folk art, later to be labelled ‘Pop art’. The incorporation of elements of popular cultural ephemera into his art is characteristic of his works from the mid 1950s onwards.
Blake moved to the West Country with his wife in 1969 and co-founded the Brotherhood of Ruralists in 1975. His work of this period is characterised by an interest in themes of the Victorian period, such as fairy paintings, and in 1970 he produced illustrations for Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-glass.
Blake has also designed covers for a number of albums and singles, including Paul Weller’s Stanley Road of 1995, the Band Aid single of 1984 and, most famously, The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band of 1967. He was elected a Royal Academician in 1981 and awarded a CBE in 1983. He lives and works in London.
