Peter Blake in "Iconic: Portraiture from Francis Bacon to Andy Warhol"

Peter Blake's Portrait of David Hockney in a Hollywood Spanish Interior, 1965, will be exhibited as part of 'Iconic: Portraiture from Francis Bacon to Andy Warhol' at the Holburne Museum, Bath, 24 January - 5 May 2025.

This seminal painting which is held in the Tate Collection, captures Blake's long-time friend David Hockney. The composition, contrived from photographic sources, is structured to look like a glossy magazine spread. 

As the Guardian writes of the exhibition: "Some of the most brilliant artists of the last 70 years appear in this survey of the pop era. Instead of a single style, the exhibition shows, what many painters of the 1960s had in common was their use of photographs as source material. They made the media image monumental."

As writer Maria Bilske, Tate comments: "This use of photographic source material and collaging of disparate elements to create a picture is typical of Blake's work. Indeed, the technique of photographing a subject against a background constructed from photographs was later famously used by the artist to design the Beatles' 'Lonely Hearts Club Band' album cover, a work also based on photographs by Cooper."

"Iconic: Portraiture from Francis Bacon to Andy Warhol" is on view until 5 May 2025.