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Lot Essay
On 1 June 1967, music, story and image came together when The Beatles' album, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was released. A few months prior, The Beatles met the Pop artists Peter Blake and Jann Haworth, through an introduction by the art dealer Robert Fraser. Blake and his partner Jann Haworth were asked to construct an elaborate set, which would become the cover design that is now so world-renowned, and so synonymous with The Beatles. During this fruitful meeting between icons of pop – both music and art - McCartney’s original vision for Sgt Pepper's fictional band was brought to life by Blake and Haworth.
The present work is the original, unique collage produced for the insert in the album. Unlike the cover design, it depicts the fictional Sgt Pepper, with Ringo, John, Paul and George masquerading as Sgt Pepper’s band below. One of the first records to feature a gatefold sleeve, the badges, moustache and sergeant’s stripes offered the chance for listeners to cut out the items and similarly take upon a disguise. Blake, who was strongly influenced by Victoriana and folk art, was already using collage to create backstories for fictional characters. The present work represents an exciting and significant moment in British Pop history, offering not only an insight into the rise in popular music in the 1960s, but also how the British Pop artists fought against the academicism of Abstract Expressionism - not only were they providing a commentary on the rise of visual popular culture, but were making a significant contribution to it.
Blake and Haworth dedicated the present work to the architect M.J. Long, Lady Wilson. Long and her husband, the architect Professor Sir Colin St John Wilson, brought together one of the most significant collections of British Pop art, including works by David Hockney, Richard Hamilton, Howard Hodgkin, Eduardo Paolozzi and Patrick Caulfield. The couple knew many of the artists personally; Wilson belonged to the avant-garde ‘Independent Group’, a group of architects, designers and artists, many of whom are now considered Britain's leading Pop artists of the 1960s.
The present work is the original, unique collage produced for the insert in the album. Unlike the cover design, it depicts the fictional Sgt Pepper, with Ringo, John, Paul and George masquerading as Sgt Pepper’s band below. One of the first records to feature a gatefold sleeve, the badges, moustache and sergeant’s stripes offered the chance for listeners to cut out the items and similarly take upon a disguise. Blake, who was strongly influenced by Victoriana and folk art, was already using collage to create backstories for fictional characters. The present work represents an exciting and significant moment in British Pop history, offering not only an insight into the rise in popular music in the 1960s, but also how the British Pop artists fought against the academicism of Abstract Expressionism - not only were they providing a commentary on the rise of visual popular culture, but were making a significant contribution to it.
Blake and Haworth dedicated the present work to the architect M.J. Long, Lady Wilson. Long and her husband, the architect Professor Sir Colin St John Wilson, brought together one of the most significant collections of British Pop art, including works by David Hockney, Richard Hamilton, Howard Hodgkin, Eduardo Paolozzi and Patrick Caulfield. The couple knew many of the artists personally; Wilson belonged to the avant-garde ‘Independent Group’, a group of architects, designers and artists, many of whom are now considered Britain's leading Pop artists of the 1960s.