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Hyatt Regency London – The Churchill, 30 Portman Square, London W1H 7BH
On 12 July Candlestar opens Peter Blake – In Print, the sixth exhibition it has produced in partnership with the luxury five-star hotel Hyatt Regency London – The Churchill, the main hotel partner to Frieze Art Fair. Peter Blake – In Print is the first time Candlestar has focussed on the work of a single artist during its Hyatt series. Often referred to as the Godfather of British Pop Art, Sir Peter Blake is best known for his limited edition prints and the design of the sleeve for The Beatles' album Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. This show is a series of snapshots of the prodigious body of print works that Sir Peter has made over a career that has spanned nearly six decades.
Sir Peter Blake creates collages that are undoubtedly odd but never jarring or disruptive. His taste for cut-and-paste techniques does not, like most Dada art, culminate in black humour. He opposes nothing and negates nothing but instead basks in the icons of popular culture. His prints indulge the utmost veneration for his heroes. If Warhol's aim was to render culturally salient images meaningless, Blake puts his heroes on a pedestal, paying homage to them with neither irony nor ambiguity.
Sir Peter Blake has always been influenced by, and continues to draw from, popular culture using well known images of celebrities such as James Dean and Elvis Presley. His Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band artwork exemplifies Blake's style, this strange, colourful huddle of people include the Beatles dressed in psychedelic uniforms surrounded by, amongst others Marlene Dietrich, Carl Gustav Jung, W.C. Fields, Diana Dors, Elvis Presley, James Dean, Bob Dylan, Marilyn Monroe, Aldous Huxley, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Sigmund Freud, Aleister Crowley, Edgar Allan Poe, Karl Marx, Oscar Wilde, William S. Burroughs, Marlon Brando, Laurel and Hardy, Lenny Bruce White and a Shirley Temple doll wearing a Rolling Stones T-shirt.
Sir Peter Blake’s associations with pop music are well documented – as well as the Beatles he has worked with Ian Drury, Paul Weller, The Who, Oasis, Brian Wilson and Band Aid. He has also championed the work of Young British Artists including Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst. Peter Blake – In Print draws on all of these sources. Commenting on his Homage to Damien Hirst – the Butterfly Man, Sir Peter says, 'Damien Hirst has used butterflies a lot in his work, and when someone pointed out that 'the butterfly man' owes more than a little to his work, I was happy to dedicate him in homage to Damien. I am an enormous admirer of Damien’s work.’
Sir Peter had major retrospectives at The Tate Britain in 1983 and Tate Liverpool in 2008. He was knighted in 2002. His other honours include honorary doctorates from the Royal College of Art (1998) and University of Leeds (2011). Sir Peter Blake’s works are represented in a numerous of major collections throughout the world.
Peter Blake – In Print will run from 12 July to September.
For press enquiries or high resolution images, please contact Candlestar.
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