Sir Peter Blake at 80

Sir Peter Blakes 80th birthday and he has produced an update on the Beatle's Seargeant Pepper's album cover. The first thing the Guardian highlights - why so few black faces?!!

Bim Adewunmi’s blog
Jann Haworth, Blake’s 1967 co-designer, has said she regretted they hadn’t included more women in their original artwork – only five out of 61 people on the cover. Which brings us to those also conspicuous by their absence – people of colour. Of course, as the title suggests, this is a very personal piece of work – Blake is drawing from his own life. And no want wants to think the culture police should bully people into tokenism. But the montage demonstrates a kind of unconscious cognitive bias, just like the Richard Curtis film, Notting Hill, in which there were almost no black faces.

The three people of colour included in the update – Mr Chow, Anish Kapoor and Shirley Bassey – are they Blake’s friends or just icons? If the latter, then as a snapshot of British cultural life, his options could have included, say, children’s author Malorie Blackman alongside JK Rowling. Or maybe Turner prize-winning artist and director Steve McQueen alongside Damien Hirst. What about designers Duro Olowu or Beatrix Ong, actors Archie Panjabi or Idris Elba, dancer Akram Khan? The list goes on.

Excuse me, it’s the man’s own opinion. It’s his work and he can put who he wants into the collage. Maybe he has no friends with black or yellow or slightly brown faces or has not been inspired by anyone other than white people. Why no Chinese or Innuit? This seems to me to be an underhand way of saying Peter blake is a racist. Also note that she highlights Jann Haworth’s contribution first.