Edwina Sandys

Edwina Sandys was born on December 22, 1938, in England. She is the daughter of Baron Duncan Sandys and Diana Churchill, and the granddaughter of the British statesman Sir Winston Churchill.

Sandys was presented to Queen Elizabeth II as a debutante. Her early education took place at a girls’ school characterized as genteel. Following her school years, she moved to Paris. Early in her career, she held various employments, including working for a dress designer where her role involved answering the doorbell, and later served as a secretary. She also contributed as a columnist for the Sunday Telegraph and authored a novel. Her career as a visual artist commenced in 1970.

In 1960, Sandys married Piers Dixon; the marriage ended in divorce in 1970. They had two sons: Mark Pierson Dixon, born in 1962, and Hugo Duncan Dixon, born in 1963. In 1985, she married architect Richard D. Kaplan, who died in 2016.

Sandys is known for her sculptural works, notably her installation titled "Breakthrough" at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri. This site is historically significant as the location of her grandfather Winston Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech delivered in 1946 and currently hosts the National Churchill Museum. The "Breakthrough" installation comprises eight sections of the Berlin Wall. Her concept of using silhouette cutouts from the wall segments led to another work titled "BreakFree," exhibited at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park, New York.

She collaborated with Missouri University of Science and Technology to create the Millennium Arch sculpture on their campus in Rolla, Missouri. The sculpture is a single trilithon with abstract silhouettes of a man and woman on its supporting megaliths, positioned several meters from a Stonehenge-like monument on the same campus. This work involved utilizing a novel technique to make deep cuts in granite.

Sandys has also created the sculpture "Christa," which explores themes of female suffering. In an interview with New York Social Diary, she explained that although she is not religious, she aimed to depict women’s suffering within the context of the image of Jesus on the cross, as a way to include women's experiences in religiously significant symbolism.

Her published works include the book titled "Edwina Sandys Art" and an illustrated quiz book called "Social Intercourse." In recognition of her contributions to British cultural interests in New York, she was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1984 New Year Honours.

References and external links related to her include her profile on Tate.org.uk.