The painter and sculptor Allen Jones has been at the forefront of British Pop Art since the 1960s. His sculptures of women as a coffee table and a standing figure as a hatstand drew accusations from feminists that he suffered from a castration complex. He has spent the last month in the country and says he will start work again on his birthday. “I hope I still have the capacity to shock,” he says. Allen Jones is 72 today. RGT
Birthdays today
Professor Sir David Carter, clinical surgeon, 69; Joe Earle, arts management consultant, 57; the Marquess of Exeter, writer, 74; Air Chief Marshal Sir Robert Freer, Deputy Commander-in-Chief, Strike Command, 1978-79, 86; Barry Gibb, Bee Gees singer, 66; Baroness Park of Monmouth, Principal of Somerville College, Oxford, 1980-89, 88; Lord Parkinson, chairman of the Conservative Party, 1981-83 and 1997-98, 78.