Accession Code: wu0078 Title: The Beach Boys Date completed: 1964 Medium: Print Material: Screenprint Height (mm): 751 Width (mm): 499 Depth (mm): n/a Inscription: Signed Peter Blake '64,with pencil lower right. Numbered 11/40. Location Name: Warwick Arts Centre Location Description: Music Centre Location Floor: 0

© Peter Blake. All rights reserved, DACS 2021

This image was based on a contemporary press photograph of the Beach Boys, and the print was Blake's contribution to the ICA/Kelpra Studio initiative in 1964 to encourage artists to use silkscreen techniques. Roger Coleman wrote of Blake: 'He paints as a 'fan', but instead of celebrating his heroes and heroines by pasting them into scrap books or pinning them to his bedroom wall or keeping a drawer full of souvenirs, he incorporates them into his work and makes them public ... Over the whole range of his subject matter from pop singers, wrestlers, movie stars, 'straight' portraits, the images undergo a transformation, they become part of his world, without entirely losing the flavour of their origin. They surrender to the new situation that Blake makes for them and reside in a magic, timeless environment that is characteristic of all his works'.

Blake's fascination with pop stars led to his being asked to design the record sleeve for The Beatles' 'Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' in 1967.