British painter Peter Phillips, one of the founders of the British pop art movement, died on June 23 at the age of 86. His family confirmed the news in an online statement.
Born in Birmingham, England in 1939, Phillips attended the Royal Academy of Arts in London along with David Hockney, Allen Jones and RB Kitaj. There, he became one of the founders of the British pop art movement in the 1950s and 1960s, which made the elements of pop culture form the themes of advertising, automotive design, science fiction comics, movies and books, and a bold push (thinking it was an elite art world).
Phillips divides mundane images of consumer culture and mass entertainment into brightly colored paintings, often with playful changes. His 1961 canvas Only for men – Starring MM and BBFor example, blending images of Marilyn Monroe and Brigitte Bardot with lingerie models and abstract symbols, the rabbit crosses the Cavas between them. The painting includes collage elements from magazines and advertisements.
His works were exhibited at the Paris Biennale in 1963. In 1964, he was included in the era definition exhibition “Nieuwe Realisten” of the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague, and later traveled to Vienna and Berlin. That same year, Phillips also attended the Harkness Scholarship, heading to New York, where he lived for two years and exhibited his work with American pop artists Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and James Rosenquist.
Over the past few decades, his canvas has continued to be exhibited in global institutions, BBC films and documentaries. A 2002 performance at Galleria civica di Modena in Italy reintroduced the artist’s 1961 painting War/Game –Its bottom is for the album cover of the second edition of American rock band The Strokes Fired room (2003). In 2009, Phillips was commissioned to create a painting for the 2010 World Cup football match, featuring football abstractions inspired by the first time in Africa.
In 2015, Phillips moved to Australia, where he established a studio and gallery in Noosa Hinterland.
In honor of him, the family is currently raising funds through Gofundme to establish the Peter Phillips Foundation, an initiative that intends to provide grants and residency programs.
