Top Chiswick artists and celebrities star in a new initiative at Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery

Image: Peter Blake, Sources of Pop Art 7 ed 175, 1010 x 1060mm. For Arts Sake. © Peter Blake, courtesy of CCA Galleries Ltd will be at Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery from 14 December

 Chiswick’s artistic and cultural icons shine at Pitzhanger Manor

Guest blog by Lucinda MacPherson

Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery in Ealing launches its first ever sale of artworks this weekend, featuring world established and emerging artists, some of whom hail from Chiswick.

The most famous contemporary artist is Sir Peter Blake, whose vibrant pop artworks and a rather special bus will be among the highlights of the show.

Image: Peter Blake on board his Art Bus

While the Godfather of Pop Art’s fame stretches far beyond the borders of London, he has always maintained strong personal and community ties to Chiswick where he has lived for many years, generously supporting heritage and artistic endeavours in the borough.

Naturally, his work appears on the Chiswick Timeline,  with a specially commissioned image of the long lamented Chiswick Empire Theatre, a place he often visited in his youth and one of the main reasons he chose to live in the area.

Top of the Pops at Pitzhanger is ‘Sources of Pop Art 7’, a signed, limited edition, featuring images of 60s cultural icons including Elvis Presley, James Dean, Shirley Temple, Marilyn Monroe and Mickey Mouse. This rare silkscreen print on paper has been made with high gloss, matt glazes, diamond dust and red glitter.

The Vintage Blake collage, created to celebrate his 80th birthday, is the fantasy party everyone wants an invitation to, with guests including David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Amy Winehouse and Audrey Hepburn jostling to get near the birthday boy,  standing centre stage, Champagne in hand.

Image: How many West Londoners can you spot in the Vintage Blake montage? Peter Blake, Vintage Blake 2012, 770 x 750mm. For Arts Sake, 45 Bond Street, Ealing, London W5 5AS, London © Peter Blake and courtesy of CCA Galleries Ltd

Chiswick socialites will want to own this celebrity crush as it features so many cultural icons with links to West London. Studying it is a spot the celebrity party game. How many did you get?

I spy Richmond residents Sir David Attenborough and Mick Jagger. Then there’s Grayson Perry, whose recent exhibition The Vanity of Small Differences received critical acclaim at Pitzhanger – hard to miss in a Little Bo Peep outfit as his alter-ego “Claire”.

Rubbing shoulders with Twiggy is Paul McCartney who filmed the Beatles’ first promotional promo for Paperback Writer at the height of their fame in the gardens of Chiswick House.

Paul Weller also pops up, a friend of Blake’s who has designed two of Weller’s record covers, including his current “66” album which he performed last month at the Apollo, Hammersmith on the last two nights of his 2024 tour.

Weller commissioned Derek d’Souza to follow in the Beatles’ footsteps with a shoot of The Jam in Chiswick House grounds to promote their single Absolute Beginners, a homage to his musical influences.

On the official opening day, Saturday 14 December, visitors can hop on board the Peter Blake Art Bus, a mobile gallery designed by Blake himself. Decorated with pop art imagery, the bus will roll up and park at the entrance to Pitzhanger, for one day only!

Paul Huxley “one of the most rigorous and underrated of British abstract painters”

Paul Huxley’s distinctive, geometric and brightly coloured work will be also be on display. Another Chiswick resident –whose studio is opposite Peter Blake’s in Hammersmith- a contemporary, also pushing the boundaries of abstracticism in the dynamic art scene of London and New York.

His distinguished 60 year career was celebrated in a biography published this year, “a testament to a life committed to tirelessly investigating and challenging form, space and colour.”

Image: Paul Huxley, Atlas

Huxley was Professor of Painting at the Royal Academy, until 1998 when he was appointed Professor Emeritus. Tim Marlow, Director of the Design Museum calls him “one of the most rigorous and underrated of British abstract painters”.

Mary West, who Chiswick Calendar editor Bridget profiled earlier this year, has several hand finished abstract landscapes in the show.

READ ALSO: Mary West – one of Chiswick’s up and coming artists

West grew up and went to school in Chiswick, then on to study Fine Art at the Slade School of Fine Art before graduating in 2002 and now lives and works in Grove Park. She and Clara Wilkinson created the striking mural for the Green Man Lane estate in West Ealing.

Image: Mary West, Golden Afternoon

Pitzhanger’s pop up shop of 150 original works on paper has been curated by Erica Davis, the Director of For Arts Sake, which boasts the largest collection of limited editions and original prints in the world. It helps to promote paper as an art medium in all its guises, whether it be collages, or silkscreens.

“Our aim is to support the art of printmaking and showcasing the varied techniques and styles of this on paper. People often don’t understand these are all handmade pieces of art, and all of our works have been signed and numbered by the artist.”

To make art ownership more accessible they are offering the Own Art scheme, a national initiative to buy with interest-free credit, spreading the cost over 10 months.

Anyone can see the For Arts Sake display for free in the main gallery, but visitors who buy a ticket are welcome to stay and enjoy a very festive Pitzhanger Manor and its two current exhibitions: Antoni Malinowski and Hélène Binet: Pigments and Photons and Language of the Physical: Katherine Gili’s Sculpture.

For Art’s Sake x Pitzhanger: Original Works on Paper 14 December 2024 – 12 January 2025 pitzhanger.org.uk/for-arts-sake-pitzhanger/

For more information, visit pitzhanger.org.uk

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