彼得·布拉克认领

Here Blake is playing with ideas about art and its reproduction. The boldly-coloured stripes relate to everyday images such as flags, packaging and signage. They may also refer to the hard-edged abstract painting of the late 1950s.Blake juxtaposes them with a traditional idea of ‘high art’, represented by a frieze of postcard reproductions of paintings and sculptures from the past.

The foundations of Pop Art in America were laid during the 1950s by Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. Like Blake, both these artists incorporated images taken from popular culture into a fine art context, and Blake has acknowledged their example. This work refers to Johns's work in particular. Whereas Johns had taken a familiar object - a target - and executed this motif on the canvas in a painterly style, Blake took this further by using a real archery target purchased from a sports shop. The work of art is consequently less like a painting and is even closer to the real world. Blake thus questions: is this 'the first real target'?

Blake’s self-portrait shows his equal respect for historical tradition and modern popular culture. He may have based this image on Thomas Gainsborough’s famous portrait The Blue Boy (illustrated to the left). But Blake’s blue fabric is not silk but denim – a material associated at the time with American youth culture.Blake’s fascination with American popular culture is further emphasised by his baseball boots and badges, and the magazine dedicated to Elvis Presley, who had just become well known in Britain. Blake uses these objects like a traditional portrait painter, to suggest his interests or achievements.