Blake burst onto the art scene in the early 60s, exhibiting alongside David Hockney and appearing in Ken Russell’s BBC programme Pop Goes the Easel which brought British pop art to a wider audience. Living and working in London during the “Swinging Sixties”, Blake and his wife at the time, Jann Haworth (b.1942), created one of the most iconic images of the 20th century with the album art for 1967’s Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Blake first lived in Chiswick from 1957, leaving for Somerset in 1969 where he spent the next 10 years. In 1979, he returned to Chiswick, where he has lived ever since with his wife Chrissy Blake.

The relationship to the local area will also be a focus of the exhibition. Ealing’s rich cultural heritage is reflected in Blake’s own interests in music and film, from The Ealing Club where the Rolling Stones and The Who played their earliest gigs, to the worldwide legacy of Ealing Studios. The artist’s own role as a collector and “superfan” will also be explored.

There are more connections to the immediate surroundings with several works on display directly referencing the work of William Hogarth (1697–1764). Famously Soane and his wife Eliza were fans, and Hogarth’s iconic series A Rake’s Progress (1732–34) was purchased for, and originally hung, at Pitzhanger (today it can be seen in the Sir John Soane’s Museum in central London). For the exhibition, Blake works inspired by Hogarth’s Marriage a La Mode and Gin Lane will be on display in the Small Drawing Room of the Manor where the Soanes originally displayed A Rake’s Progress.

From the early 1960s to very recent works, the exhibition will provide a thorough and intimate look at one of Britain’s most enduring and popular artists – all exhibited alongside a recreation of the studio space where he has produced a great majority of his instantly recognisable images.

Peter Blake: In the Studio is curated by Jake Twyford and Louise Shorr.