During the late 1950s, Blake became one of the best known British pop artists.Blake was included in group expositions at the Institute of Contemporary and had his first solo exposition in 1960. It was the 'Young Contemporaries' exposition of 1961 where he was displayed next to David Hockney and R.b Kitaj that he was first identified with the young British Pop Art movement.Blake won the John Moores junior award (1961) for his work Self Portrait with Badges.