Peter Blake: With Love

An extensive overview of the father of British Pop art's cheeky, incisive collages, paintings and sculptures

This volume is dedicated to the English artist Peter Blake (born 1932), who is regarded as one of the founders of British Pop art; he is perhaps best known for codesigning the classic collaged cover for the Beatles album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Across his painting, sculpture, collage and graphic art works, images from the realms of the circus, amusement parks, boxing and wrestling abound. These images often transmit historical references with a sense of irreverent, absurdist yet endearing humor--in other words, "nonsense," a quintessentially English kind of humor. With Love presents a retrospective look at the artist's life and work. In an extensive critical text, curator Jonathan Watkins traces Blake's artistic journey, particularly delving into the challenging early years of his life that informed his practice.