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Tag: Second World War

Irina Aleksandrovna Antonova the 90 year old Russian Director of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow for the past 50+ years has been the subject of an article by Anna Somers Cocks published in The Art Newspaper titled ‘Firmly in the saddle at 90’. Cocks states, “She has served there for 67 years, joining it one month before the end of the Second World War. “It was August 1945”, she remembers: “The works of art confiscated from the Dresden museums were arriving as war reparations [most were returned in 1955 as part of a political treaty with East Germany]… Since 1961, she has been the highly respected director of the museum, which is only ten years older than herself. Its centenary and her birthday will be celebrated together in great state at the Bolshoi Theatre on 31 May. Directors of the leading museums of the world, members of the exclusive and discreet Bizot Group, a kind of museum summit, are coming to pay homage to a woman who has skillfully navigated the dangerous political shoals of her country and has represented it with distinction abroad.”

 

Inspired by Anna Somers Cocks http://ow.ly/a80H3 image source http://ow.ly/a810j

Antoni Tàpies i Puig the 88 year old Catalonian Spanish painter sculptor and art theorist has died. Tàpies the best known Catalan artist emerging in the post Second World war period, had studied law before devoting his life to painting, initially influenced by Paul Klee and Joan Miró, he was instrumental in helping establish a Spanish movement connected to the Surrealist and Dadaist movements  known as ‘Dau al Set’. Tàpies established his own artistic style in line with ‘pintura matèrica’ where a mixed media of non-traditional artistic materials are included into the painted work, such as clay, waste-paper, rags, string and marble dust. Tàpies represented Spain at the Venice Biennale in 1993, and in 2003 he was awarded Spain’s foremost honour for artists, the Velazquez Prize. Tàpies painted approximately 8,000 pieces over his career, prompting Spain’s King Carlos in 2010 to award him the title of Marqués de Tàpies.

 

Inspired by Helen Stoilas http://ow.ly/8ZnnR image source canalhub http://ow.ly/8Znhv

Claude Stanley Choules the 110 year old and very last of the First (Great) World War veterans has died, bringing to a close the last of the remaining combat veterans, particularly in Choules’ case who served also in the Second World War. Choules of UK origin moved to Australia in 1926 never to return again to the UK, joining the Royal Australian Navy until his retirement. During the First World War, Choules served aboard the battleship HMS Revenge, the flagship of the British First Battle Squadron. Aboard the battleship he was able to witness the surrender of the German Imperial Navy in 1918 ten days after the Armistice, only to then witness the fleet scuttled at Scapa Flow by their German crews to avoid them falling into the British Hands. Inspired by James Meikle ow.ly/4UPS0 image source Wikipedia ow.ly/4UPRt A fleet of Warships surrender without firing a shot (May 18 2011)

Claude Stanley Choules the 110 year old and very last of the First (Great) World War veterans has died, bringing to a close the last of the remaining combat veterans, particularly in Choules’ case who served also in the Second World War. Choules of UK origin moved to Australia in 1926 never to return again to the UK, joining the Royal Australian Navy until his retirement. During the First World War, Choules served aboard the battleship HMS Revenge, the flagship of the British First Battle Squadron. Aboard the battleship he was able to witness the surrender of the German Imperial Navy in 1918 ten days after the Armistice, only to then witness the fleet scuttled at Scapa Flow by their German crews to avoid them falling into the British Hands.

 

Inspired by James Meikle ow.ly/4UPS0 image source Wikipedia ow.ly/4UPRt

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