Why British artist Peter Blake is one of the world’s greatest pop art icons

Iconic British artist Peter Blake has left an indelible mark on the world of pop art, by working with icons ranging from The Beatles to The Macallan.

When it comes to creating iconic pop art, Sir Peter Blake is one of the all-time greats.

From the monumental album cover of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band to the vivid imagery of his Band Aid and Live Aid designs, the British artist’s work has weaved itself into some of pop culture’s most momentous occasions.

'Self-portrait With Badges' is one of Blake's most famous paintings.

The artist, who celebrates his 89th birthday on June 25, graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1956, and soon began establishing himself as one of Britain’s foremost creators of iconic pop art.

His unique visual style saw him appropriating pop culture icons and advertising imagery to create homages to the likes of Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot, Elvis Presley and more.

His love for pop culture was apparent in all his work – his iconic 1961 Self-portrait With Badges, shows the artist holding an Elvis album, dressed in American jeans, Converse trainers, and baseball badges.

However, it wasn’t until 1967 that Blake’s name would come to be forever intertwined with British pop culture, thanks to the release of The Beatles’ seminal Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album.

For the cover image (which Blake co-designed with then-wife, artist Jann Haworth), the artist’s idea was for it to look like a photograph of the band after they had just played a concert in the park, together with the crowd who had just watched the show.

the album cover of The Beatle' 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'.

In a 2002 interview with Mojo magazine, Blake recalls telling them that if they did this “by using cardboard cut-outs, it could be a magical crowd of whomever they wanted."

The result was one of history’s greatest ever album covers, featuring a collage of the Beatles in costume as the album’s titular band standing with a group of life-sized cardboard cut-outs of famous people such as stars like Bob Dylan, Mae West, Fred Astaire and Marilyn Monroe, writers James Joyce and Edgar Allen Poe, politicians, gurus, and more.

Blake would go on to create iconic album covers for the likes of The Who, Oasis, Eric Clapton, Paul Weller, and of course, the 1984 Band Aid single Do They Know It’s Christmas?.

Blake has also worked on album covers for the likes of Oasis and also the 1984 Band Aid single ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’.

Pop music is not the only British institution Blake has created for. In 1986, he created a bespoke label for a bottle of The Macallan 1926 whisky that was inspired by events of the era. In 2012, Blake and the Scotch producer worked together once again on a limited edition art piece in celebration of his 80th birthday.

This year, Blake collaborated for the third time with The Macallan on the Anecdotes of Ages Collection, which features 13 one-of-a-kind bottles of whisky, each with its own original Peter Blake collage art on the label, which the artist says was “inspired by The Macallan’s history and heritage, one that respects time and craft, two essential components of my own creative process”.

Blake collaborated for the third time with The Macallan on the Anecdotes of Ages Collection.

The whisky inside each bottle also has a significant link to Blake. Matured for more than 50 years, it was carefully selected to represent the year that Sir Peter Blake’s signature collages transcended from art into popular culture – 1967, the year Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released.

One of the original bottles from the set was auctioned off to benefit the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, while the 13th bottle is being retained in The Macallan archive.

The Macallan also released a limited edition whisky featuring a duplicate label and the same rare 1967 whisky, titled The Anecdotes of Ages Collection: Down to Work Limited Edition, with only 322 bottles available worldwide, as well as a special single malt Scotch created to commemorate Sir Peter Blake’s visit to The Macallan Estate on the legendary River Spey, called An Estate, A Community and A Distillery.

To find out more about The Macallan Anecdotes of Ages Collection click here, or Follow The Macallan Malaysia on Instagram. For purchase inquiry, please contact [phone] or +012-670 7220 or check out The Macallan e-boutique."