Artist research: Peter Blake

During the late 1950s, Blake became one of the best known British pop artists. His paintings from this time included imagery from advertisements, music hall entertainment, and wrestlers, often including collaged elements. Blake was included in group exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Arts and had his first solo exhibition in 1960.

On the Balcony

On the Balcony (1955-57) is a significant early work and still stands as one of the iconic pieces of British Pop Art, showing Blake's interest in combining images from pop culture with fine art. The work, which appear to be a collage but is in fact wholly painted, shows, among other things, a boy holding Edouard Manet's The Balcony, badges and magazines. It was inspired by a painting by Honoré Sharrer depicting workers holding famous paintings. Blake confronts the viewer with a picture plane that is deceptively flat, effectively blocking the viewer from venturing deeper into the picture plane.

Summer on the Coke Side of Life

One of the main things that I like about Peter Blake is his pop art style. I like the way that he can gather a series of images and collage them all together much more meaning and symbolism, often with a child like style. One of my favourite pieces that he has created is the coke bottle. I really like the montage effect that has been created. The piece is titled “Last Summer” He was commissioned by coca cola to create an image that would represent the brand.

“Summer on the Coke Side of Life”

In this video you can see Blake and his team creating the 7m high work of art on the SouthBank. Blake’s enthusiasm for the project shows in his large-scale piece; it is at once an icon for Coke and for his signature style.


sources

• coca-cola-art.com/ 2007/11/08/sir-peter-blake/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Blake_(artist)