Sir Peter Blake, R.A.

John Richardson
Robert Fraser Gallery, London
Dickinson Fine Art, London, where acquired by the present owner

Bristol, City Art Gallery, Peter Blake, 17th November - 13th December 1969, cat. no.106, where lent by John Richardson.

The Sunday Times Colour Magazine, 6th October 1963, reproduced as cover;
Nathalie Rudd, Peter Blake, Tate Publishing, London, 2003, p.50, illustrated pl. no.44;
Marco Livingstone, Peter Blake, One Man Show, Lund Humphries, Aldershot, 2009, p.140, pl.140 (reproduced cover for the Sunday Times Magazine).

Unexamined out of frame. The artist's card is sound, and appears to be adhered to a backing board. There is minor scuffing to the extreme edges, most noticeably to the top and bottom right corners, where there are small areas of resultant loss. There is minor dirt and media marks to the unpainted boarder, which appear in keeping with the nature of the work. There is extremely minor craquelure to the raised white pigment behind the 'O' of 'CORE'. There is minor surface dirt elsewhere to the work, however this excepting the work appears to be in very good condition, with vivid and bright colours throughout. Housed behind glass in a thin black frame, float-mounted against an off-white mount. Unexamined out of frame. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

In the slow burn of activity that steadily built to become what we now think of as ‘The Sixties’, there are a number of significant waypoints. Seemingly small in themselves, they nevertheless mark a discernible shift in how we went about our lives. The launch in early 1962 of The Sunday Times Colour Magazine appears to be just such a point. Not only was the magazine the first of its kind in Britain, a template that would become ubiquitous, but its success made clear that the British had an appetite for this new take on life, focussing on slick visuals and aspirational features on a wide range of topics. Across food, travel, literature or just simply what was the new cool, the man behind it was Mark Boxer, previously art director of the society magazine Queen. Boxer commissioned a range of artists and photographers to work for him at The Sunday Times, and his relationship with Blake was particularly successful through the 1960s.

The Criminal Core was Blake’s design for the October 6^th 1963 issue, and packs a remarkable amount of imagery into a small space. Dividing up the area into nine small squares, each becomes almost a flash image from the movies: the broken window of a bookies, the poster of a boxer within, a ‘businessman’ in the back of his car, a dusted fingerprint, a bobby in uniform. Instantly Blake has pushed us straight into the world of the London gangsters, that curious mix of violence and menace with an undeniable touch of old-fashioned glamour exemplified by the Kray twins, immortalised for us in this same period in the 1965 publication, David Bailey’s Box of Pin-ups.