When looking at SANDY, I have greatly taken into account the year that the sculpture was created because of the historical context. SANDY was created in 1967 which was a tumultuous time in American history with the civil rights movement going strong. I thought of this fact as soon as I saw that date and took note that SANDY is very obviously a woman. Historians attribute the beginning of the women's movement with the women's rights convention in July of 1948 at Seneca Falls (Timeline of Events). However, most people think of the 1960s and 1970s in the United States when they think about women's rights. In 1967, it had been a year since Betty Friedan founded the National Organization for Women and women had seen some victories such as the Civil Rights Act and other laws that banned discrimination based on race, sex, and gender. Betty Friedan's book The Feminine Mystique in 1963 opened most of the country's eyes to the narrow role that they had put women in and how women felt about this. Even with laws and national awareness of the subject, women would continue to fight through the seventies for their rights to be who they wanted to be, not trapped in what society wanted them to be(Women's History in America). This historical context is extremely pertinent to the creation of SANDY.
The sculptor's own work provides some context to work with when thinking about SANDY. Miller mostly worked with nude models to create wax and clay sculptures that he later cast into bronze. After working with abstract concepts he delved into the world of the art of human form and thus came the nude work. He also thought of the human body as geometric forms put together and incorporated this into his work, which we can see he expanded upon this outside of the human body with the boxes around SANDY and with the positioning of her legs. This will also be an important concept to think about when I develop my statement of purpose and writing project.
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