Peter Phillips, Influential British Pop Art Pioneer, Passes Away at 86

Peter Phillips, a leading figure in the 1960s British Pop Art movement, passed away on June 23 at the age of 86 on Australia’s Sunshine Coast. Drawing from his working-class roots in industrial Birmingham, he created paintings that combined glossy car parts, pinup imagery, and film icons, capturing the postwar era’s blend of sexuality and consumer culture.

His family announced his passing without specifying a cause. Phillips had been residing in Australia since 2015.

Emerging as part of a bold new generation of artists, Phillips challenged the conservative British art scene during the early 1960s, a period marked by cultural revival and social change after World War II.

While studying at London’s Royal College of Art in 1961, he drew inspiration from American artists such as Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, who incorporated everyday symbols like flags and beer cans into their art, blurring boundaries between popular and fine art.

Phillips gained early recognition as one of the standout talents featured in the influential “Young Contemporaries” exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery in London’s East End, showcased alongside peers and former classmates including David Hockney, Allen Jones, R.B. Kitaj, and Derek Boshier.