A painter of urban realist subjects and a pioneer of ‘Pop Art’, Sir Peter Blake was born in 1932 in Dartford, Kent. He studied at Gravesend Art School between 1948–51, served in the Royal Air Force between 1951–33, continued his studies at the Royal College of Art between 1953–56, won the Leverhulme Research Award to study popular art and travelled in Holland, Belgium, France, Italy and Spain between 1956–57. He exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1954 and 1955, ‘Daily Express’ Young Artists Exhibition 1955, Five Painters at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in 1958, awarded First Prize in the Junior Section John Moores Liverpool Exhibition in 1961. First one-man exhibition at the Portal Gallery, London in 1962.