Peter Blake creates his largest artwork yet for the Mandarin Oriental Hotel

Date
17 January 2017

The iconic collage artist Sir Peter Blake has created his largest work to date for the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Knightsbridge, London. The collage which spans the size of 38 double decker buses, will wrap around the building whilst it undergoes an £85 million renovation.

Peter Blake’s artwork created with London advertising, features 99 prominent faces and regular guests of the Mandarin Oriential, from Helen Mirren to Morgan Freeman. The collage is created in a similar vein to Peter Blake’s celebrated artwork for The Beatles’ 1967 album, Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.

Despite being in Peter’s familiar style he explains the experience was completely new, “This artwork was very different to my usual way of working,” says the artist. “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.”

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About the Author

Lucy Bourton

Lucy (she/her) is the senior editor at Insights, a research-driven department with It's Nice That. Get in contact with her for potential Insights collaborations or to discuss Insights' fortnightly column, POV. Lucy has been a part of the team at It's Nice That since 2016, first joining as a staff writer after graduating from Chelsea College of Art with a degree in Graphic Design Communication.

lb@itsnicethat.com

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