Peter Blake "World Tour"
RYAN LEE
This event has ended.
Mary Ryan Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new work by English artist Peter Blake. Blake has often been called “the godfather of Pop Art” and his work is widely shown and collected throughout Europe. He has rarely shown in the United States; this is his third exhibition in New York since 1962. Blake will be present at the opening reception.
Though he is best known in the states for creating the album cover of The Beatles’ ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,’ his paintings, drawings, prints and collages have focused on all aspects of popular culture from sports to music to film. Beyond being seen as iconic imagery, Blake’s work has always had a particular ability to translate the social preoccupations of the time. While immersed in pop culture, his art belongs to a long tradition of figurative realism and he has been influenced by Victorian imagery, myth, folk art, outsider art and vintage illustration.
"Peter Blake: World Tour" will feature 10 unique collages on paper and canvas depicting New York, Paris, Los Angeles, Venice and Tokyo. These unique mixed media pieces combine real imagery (vintage postcards and photographs) with Blake’s invented additions, transcending time and leading the viewer deep into the artist’s imagination. This body of work features “Butterfly Man,” a whimsical character who travels the world orchestrating butterflies. This exhibition also marks the debut of Blake’s newest suite of silkscreens, Paris Portfolio, also based on vintage postcards, as well as two new editions, Union Jack and Old Glory.
Blake is a relentless collector and experimenter. While all of the works in this exhibition feature imagery that has attracted Blake since the 1960s, his exploration of digital technology has added a new component to his collages. Computer scanning, manipulation, and ink jet printing happily provide Blake the ability to alter his collage imagery in ways that would not have been possible through earlier photographic techniques he used. By increasing the scale of his collage elements, Blake heightens detail and reveals new information to the viewer.
[Image: Peter Blake "The Butterfly Man, Paris" (2010) Inkjet on canvas 82 x 53 in.]
Media
Schedule
from April 14, 2011 to June 18, 2011
Opening Reception on 2011-04-14 from 18:00 to 20:00