Babe Rainbow

The print on tin shows a female wrestler, a figure invented by Peter Blake. The woman in a white bikini wears a rainbow fan in her hair and a Union Jack as a necklace; the central belt badge shows an iconic British transatlantic liner. The rainbow colours frame the image, big block capitals call the wrestler “Babe Rainbow”. Blake’s work plays with the tradition of metal posters, turned into tokens of pop culture. She’s a Rainbow by the Rolling Stones from 1967 comes to mind, while Blake is famous for covers such as The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s. Gender issues may have played a role, although it was not until the late 1970s that the rainbow became the symbol for multiple sexual orientations.