PIN-UPS & PACKAGING COLLAGE, COLLECTING AND PETER BLAKE

40 Apollo

Intimately linked with his art, Peter Blake’s collections are the subject of an exhibition at this year’s Olympia Fine Art, Design & Antiques Fair. Bevis Hilliervisited him in his London studio to talk about collecting. Photographs by Snowdon.

Anyone who wants to know who mattered in popular culture in 1960s Britain should obtain the book Goodbye Baby and Amen: A Saraband for the Sixties: classic portrait photographs by David Bailey and a wittily overwritten text by Peter Evans. It was published in the symbolic and actual fin-de-décadeyear 1969 – the year the Beatles split up and man landed on the moon. Included are the Beatles, Alan Aldridge (who illustrated The Beatles’ Songbookin psychedelic style), with his curtain of blond hair, Vanessa Redgrave, Julie Christie, an ethereal kohl-eyed Twiggy, Michael Caine in his horn-rim glasses and David Hockney in his, the art dealer Robert Fraser (‘Groovy Bob’), the Rolling Stones, a young David Frost and the fashion designer Ossie Clark. And there, among them, is Peter Blake (Fig. 1), looking out at us with the same gaze of absolute integrity that he trains on you today from slightly fuller features.

1 Peter Blake outside his London studio

2 A corner of Blake’s studio, crammed with vintage signs and toys, Punch and Judy puppets and models of Disney characters, including the Seven Dwarves: Snow White is a key figure in his collection