Peter Blake: A Celebration – Art Exhibition
5 Feb – 2 March 2012
Bohun Gallery, Reading Road
The ‘Godfather of British Pop Art’, Peter Blake, will be rounding up a year of celebrations for his eightieth birthday with a show at the Bohun Gallery, Henley on Thames. Blake will be exhibiting a variety of images, including Vintage Blake: Peter Blake’s 80th Family, Friends and Icons, which was recently unveiled to great acclaim in the national media. The composition was created especially for the celebrations around Blake’s birthday, and features a crowd collage highlighting figures from the artist’s career and personal life, including David Hockney, Eric Clapton, David Bowie, Ian Drury, Damien Hirst and many more.
This major print show will offer collectors the opportunity to acquire work reflecting most aspects of the artist’s career. The Replay series of colourful silkscreens re-invents some of Blake’s most infamous works from the 1950’s and 60’s which focus on the icons of the time. His painterly technique is celebrated in the quirky series of prints taken from his ‘A Madonna on Venice Beach’ suite, which placed familiar 16th Century Madonnas against the Venice Boardwalks of the 1980s. More recently Blake has developed his collage technique and the screenprints of his later career focus on this practice. Many of his works feature found printed materials such as photographs, comic strips or advertising texts, combined with bold geometric patterns and primary colours. The works perfectly capture the effervescent and optimistic ethos of the sixties,but are also strikingly fresh and contemporary. The work of this great British icon continues to cross all generational divides and inspires great respect from younger artists such as Damien Hirst, Gavin Turk and Tracey Emin.
This will be a double celebration as the Bohun Gallery marks its 40th year in fine art in 2013. Patricia Jordan Evans, director of the Bohun Gallery, held her first Peter Blake show at the Henley on Thames gallery in 1979 and has gone on to exhibit Blake’s work regularly; so it seems fitting that the Bohun will be starting their 40th celebrations with a show of this iconic artists’ work.
The Bohun Gallery has earned a national reputation as one of the leading out-of-London galleries. It has become synonymous with 20th Century British art and enjoys enduring associations with Mary Fedden, John Piper, Donald Hamilton Fraser, Eric Rimmington and represents the Estate of Julian Trevelyan. More recently the Bohun Gallery has been involved in major commissions including a standing stone at the Royal Savill Gardens and portraits of Sir Stephen Hawking, Sir Timothy Berners-Lee and Sir John Madjeski. In 2012, following a major retrospective celebrating Mary Fedden’s career, Patricia Jordan Evans curated the acclaimed exhibition ‘John Piper and the Church’ at Dorchester Abbey to celebrate HM The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.
Please contact Katie Newman on 01491 576228 or art@bohungallery.co.uk for info.
