The Godfather of Pop Art unveils his latest enormous collage for London's Mandarin Hotel.

The Godfather of British Pop Art and close friend of the gallery Sir Peter Blake has recently unveiled a monumental mural featuring his signature collage aesthetic. The piece has pride of place on the side of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in London’s Knightsbridge.

The piece, which has been executed in a similar style to his iconic Sgt. Pepper’s album cove, features over 100 prominent faces of people who are regular guests and the prestigious London hotel. Some of the famous people to grace Blake’s façade include Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, Christian Louboutin, Whoopi Goldberg, Heston Blumenthal, Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr.

Blake describes the arduous nature of making collages and some of the problems he encountered whilst designing the enormous hoardings:

 Peter Blake's best known work Sgt. Pepper's album cover.

“A collage is very time consuming and laborious, but this was more a matter of arranging the figures and making them work together – making sure no one had a cut-off shoulder or missing legs – that’s the skill of it. It was an amazing project to work on. Hopefully, people passing by will try to spot celebrities they recognise.” – Peter Blake

Blake received the commission from the Mandarin Oriental group to cover the entire front of the hotel during multi-million pound revamp, which includes a radical overhaul from award-winning luxury interiors company Joyce Wang Designs.

As previously mentioned the Brighton gallery shares a very close relationship with Peter Blake. We were privileged to host the esteemed artist back in November for the release of his exclusive Brighton box set. Sir Peter was present in our Bond Street space signing and dedicating prints to his adoring fans, afterwards conducting a memorable Q&A at the Hotel du Vin.
You can relive some of the magic from that evening in the two event videos above.

We have a few of the Brighton box sets available in our Brighton gallery. Contact us by calling on 01273 724829 for further information.