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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

Grayson Perry the 51 year old UK Turner Prize winning artist renowned for his ceramic classical form vases and cross-dressing female alter-ego ‘Claire’ claims in an interview with Anna Somers Cocks, that ‘Claire’ “gave me clarity. I always describe it as someone tidying up my tool shed so that I had everything easily to hand and wasn’t fumbling in the dark any more.” Perry states “She started as a spontaneous welling up of my sexuality when I was about 13. At first, I just tried to look like a woman. I would go shopping and wander about town, and it was a bit boring. …when I was about 40. I was having therapy and reconsidering everything, so I thought of wearing clothes that represented the extremes of femininity, and from that day on I indulged my fantasies… It’s brilliant the way society has embraced me, but it has taken some of the thrill out of dressing up. A side effect is that, in the past, when I dressed up and went out into the street, people would say, “Who’s that weird bloke?” while now I’m “Grayson Perry”, which means that I’m in danger of getting pestered.”

 

Inspired by Anna Somers Cocks http://ow.ly/9m9n0 image source http://ow.ly/9m9hh

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