Cowboy Jake Rodeo Online

If Peter Blake hadn t become a successful artist, he claims he would have tried to make it big as a professional wrestler. Since childhood, the Godfather of Pop Art professed a fascination with the sport, stating; I loved it immediately. I loved the theatre, the fantasy and the idea of good versus evil. Blake s first series depicting wrestlers came in 1961, and involved him finding publicity shots in sports magazines and inventing heroic histories for each character.

In this series, which was created for created for his 2015 exhibition, Portraits and People , Blake has created his own fictional band of wrestlers. To convey the impression his wrestlers are famous, Blake uses celebrity faces to provoke a slight glimmer of recognition in the observer.

Each print combines three of Blake s favourite things; watercolour portraiture, typography, and flags. Strapping Cowboy Jake Rodeo is an All-American boy.