Ana Mendieta
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Ana Mendieta (November 18, 1948 – September 8, 1985) was a Cuban-American performance artist, sculptor, painter and
video artist Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting. ...
who is best known for her "earth-body" artwork. Born in
Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.
, Mendieta left for the United States in 1961.


Early life and exile

Mendieta was born on November 18, 1948, in
Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.
,
Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
, to a wealthy family prominent in the country's politics and society. Her father, Ignacio Alberto Mendieta de Lizáur, was an attorney and the nephew of Carlos Mendieta, who was installed as president by
Fulgencio Batista Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar (; ; born Rubén Zaldívar, January 16, 1901 – August 6, 1973) was a Cuban military officer and politician who served as the elected president of Cuba from 1940 to 1944 and as its U.S.-backed military dictator ...
for just under two years. Her mother, Raquel Oti de Rojas, was a chemist, a researcher, and the granddaughter of Carlos Maria de Rojas, a sugar mill owner celebrated for his role in the war against Spain for Cuban independence. Ana, aged 12, and her 15-year-old sister Raquelin were sent to the United States by their parents to live in Dubuque, Iowa through
Operation Peter Pan Operation Peter Pan (or Operación Pedro Pan) was a clandestine exodus of over 14,000 unaccompanied Cuban minors ages 6 to 18 to the United States over a two-year span from 1960 to 1962. They were sent after parents feared that Fidel Castro and ...
, a collaborative program, run by the US government and the
Catholic Charities The Catholic Church operates numerous charitable organizations. Catholic spiritual teaching includes spreading the Gospel, while Catholic social teaching emphasises support for the sick, the poor and the afflicted through the corporal and spi ...
, for Cuban children to flee Fidel Castro's dictatorship. Ana and Raquelin were among 14,000 children who migrated to the United States through this program in 1961. Mendieta's first two years in the United States consisted of constant alternation between foster homes and orphanages. The sisters were able to stay together during this time due to a power of attorney signed by their parents, which mandated that they not be separated. The two sisters spent their first weeks in refugee camps, and then moved between several institutions and foster homes throughout
Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to th ...
.Ana Mendieta
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 89th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It is the permanent home of a continuously exp ...
, New York.
In 1966, Mendieta was reunited with her mother and younger brother. Her father joined them in 1979, having spent 18 years in a political prison in Cuba for his involvement in the
Bay of Pigs invasion The Bay of Pigs Invasion (, sometimes called ''Invasión de Playa Girón'' or ''Batalla de Playa Girón'' after the Playa Girón) was a failed military landing operation on the southwestern coast of Cuba in 1961 by Cuban exiles, covertly fin ...
.


Education

In Cuba, Mendieta grew up as a sheltered, upper-class child. She attended an all-girls Catholic private school. When she and her sister were sent to Iowa, they were enrolled in a reform school because the court wanted to avoid sending them to a state institution. When Mendieta studied English in school, her vocabulary was very limited. In junior high school, she discovered a love for art. Mendieta was first a French major and art minor, but when she transferred to the
University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 col ...
, she was inspired by the
avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
community and the hills of Iowa's landscape. She earned a BA (enrolled 1969–1972) and MA in painting, and an MFA (enrolled 1972–1977) in
Intermedia Intermedia is an art theory term coined in the mid-1960s by Fluxus artist Dick Higgins to describe various interdisciplinarity art activities that occur between genres, beginning in the 1960s. It was also used by John Brockman to refer to work ...
under the instruction of acclaimed artist
Hans Breder Hans Dieter Breder (October 20, 1935 June 18, 2017) was a German-American interdisciplinary artist. He lived and worked in Iowa. Early life Breder studied painting under Willem Grimm at the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg and received ...
. In college, Mendieta's work focused on blood and violence toward women. Her interest in spiritualism, religion, and primitive
ritual A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or objects, performed according to a set sequence. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized ...
s developed during this time. She said that she faced a great deal of discrimination in art school. After graduate school, she moved to New York City.


Work

In the course of her career, Mendieta created work in Cuba, Mexico, Italy, and the United States. Her work was somewhat autobiographical, drawing from her history of being displaced from her native Cuba, and focused on themes including
feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
, violence, life, death, identity, place and belonging. Her work was relevant to today's society, and as stated by Arnold "Her exile from Cuba and longing for her homeland is the base of much of her work...she embodies the conflicts of identity suffered by misplaced individuals...and she was concerned with feminism and violence against women". Many of her works included ephemeral outdoor performances and photographs, sculptures and drawings. Her works are generally associated with the four basic elements of
nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are ...
. Mendieta often focused on a spiritual and physical connection with the Earth. She felt that by uniting her body with the earth she could become whole again: "Through my earth/body sculptures, I become one with the earth ... I become an extension of nature and nature becomes an extension of my body. This obsessive act of reasserting my ties with the earth is really the reactivation of primeval beliefs ... nan omnipresent female force, the after image of being encompassing within the womb, is a manifestation of my thirst for being." During her lifetime, Mendieta produced over 200 works of art using earth as a sculptural medium. Her techniques were mainly influenced by Afro-Cuban traditions.


''Rape Scene'' (1973 Moffit Street, Iowa City, Iowa)

In 1973, Mendieta performed ''Rape Scene'' which commented on the rape and murder of a fellow student that had occurred on the Iowa University campus by another student.  In the performance Mendieta invited friends and other students to visit her in her Moffit Street apartment.  Upon arriving at her apartment, viewers were confronted with the image of Mendieta, naked from the waist down, smeared with blood, bent over, and bound to a table. The interaction between the people who stayed to observe and talk about her work (rape scene) and the artist herself (Ana Mendieta) became to be a sort of physiological relief for the tragic crime that occurred at the University of lowa She mentions how although she stood in the position for an hour, it was a really an eye-opening experience (Tate, 2010). In 1978, Ana Mendieta joined the Artists In Residence Inc ( A.I.R. Gallery) in New York, which was the first gallery for women to be established in the United States. The venture gave her the opportunity to network with other women artists at the forefront of the era's
feminist movement The feminist movement (also known as the women's movement, or feminism) refers to a series of social movements and political campaigns for radical and liberal reforms on women's issues created by the inequality between men and women. Such ...
. During that time, Mendieta was also actively involved in the administration and maintenance of the A.I.R. In an unpublished statement, she noted, "It is crucial for me to be a part of all my art works. As a result of my participation, my vision becomes a reality and part of my experiences." At the same time, after two years of involvement with A.I.R. she concluded that "
American Feminism Feminism in the United States refers to the collection of movements and ideologies aimed at defining, establishing, and defending a state of equal political, economic, cultural, and social rights for women in the United States. Feminism has ha ...
as it stands is basically a white middle class movement," and she sought to challenge the limits of this perspective through her art. She met her future husband
Carl Andre Carl Andre (born September 16, 1935) is an American minimalist artist recognized for his ordered linear and grid format sculptures and for the suspected murder of contemporary and wife, Ana Mendieta. His sculptures range from large public art ...
at the gallery, when he served on a panel titled "How has women's art practices affected male artist social attitudes?" Her resignation in 1982 is attributed, in part, to a dispute instigated by Andre over a collaborative art piece the couple had submitted. In a 2001 journal article, Kat Griefen, director of A.I.R from 2006 to 2011, wrote,
The letter of resignation did not cite any reasons for her departure, but a number of fellow A.I.R. artists remember the related events. For a recent benefit Mendieta and Carl Andre had donated a collaborative piece. As was the policy, all works needed to be delivered by the artist. Edelson recalls that Andre took offense, instigating a disagreement, which, in part, led to Mendieta's resignation. Even without this incident, according to another member, Pat Lasch, Mendieta's association with the now legendary Andre surely played some role in her decision.
In 1983, Mendieta was awarded the
Rome Prize The Rome Prize is awarded by the American Academy in Rome, in Rome, Italy. Approximately thirty scholars and artists are selected each year to receive a study fellowship at the academy. Prizes have been awarded annually since 1921, with a hiatus ...
by the
American Academy in Rome The American Academy in Rome is a research and arts institution located on the Gianicolo (Janiculum Hill) in Rome. The academy is a member of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers. History In 1893, a group of American architects, ...
. While in residence in Rome, Mendieta began creating art "objects," including drawings and sculptures. She continued to use natural elements in her work.


''Silueta Series'' (1973–1985)

The ''Silueta Series'' (1973–1985) involved Mendieta creating female silhouettes in nature—in mud, sand, and grass—with natural materials ranging from leaves and twigs to blood, and making body prints or painting her outline or
silhouette A silhouette ( , ) is the image of a person, animal, object or scene represented as a solid shape of a single colour, usually black, with its edges matching the outline of the subject. The interior of a silhouette is featureless, and the silhou ...
onto a wall. She did this to express herself becoming part of the earth and embody a process of rituals (Abby, 2015). In a 1981 artist statement, Mendieta said:
I have been carrying out a dialogue between the landscape and the female body (based on my own silhouette). I believe this has been a direct result of my having been torn from my homeland (Cuba) during my adolescence. I am overwhelmed by the feeling of having been cast from the womb (nature). My art is the way I re-establish the bonds that unite me to the universe. It is a return to the maternal source.
When she began her ''Silueta Series'' in the 1970s, Mendieta was one of many artists experimenting with the emerging genres of land art,
body art Body art is art made on, with, or consisting of, the human body. Body art covers a wide spectrum including tattoos, body piercings, scarification, and body painting. Body art may include performance art, body art is likewise utilized for investi ...
, and performance art. The films and photographs of Siluetas are in connection with the figures surrounding her body. Mendieta was possibly the first to combine these genres in what she called "earth-body" sculptures. She often used her naked body to explore and connect with the Earth, as seen in her piece ''Imagen de Yagul'', from the series ''Silueta Works in Mexico 1973–1977''. Mendieta's first use of blood to make art dates from 1972, when she performed ''Untitled (Death of a Chicken)'', for which she stood naked in front of a white wall holding a freshly decapitated chicken by its feet as its blood spattered her naked body. Appalled by the brutal rape and murder of nursing student Sarah Ann Ottens at the University of Iowa, Mendieta smeared herself with blood and had herself tied to a table in 1973, inviting an audience in to bear witness in ''Untitled (Rape Scene)''.
Kay Larson Kay Larson is an American art critic, columnist, author, and Buddhist practitioner. She wrote a column of art criticism for New York (magazine), ''New York'' magazine for 14 years. Her writing about art and Buddhism has appeared in numerous pub ...
(February 16, 2001)
Vito Acconci and Ana Mendieta – 'A Relationship Study, 1969–1976'
''The New York Times''.
Professor and art historian Kaira Cabañas writes about ''Untitled (Rape Scene)'':
Her body was the subject and object of the work. She used it to emphasize the societal conditions by which the female body is colonized as the object of male desire and ravaged under masculine aggression. Mendieta's corporeal presence demanded the recognition of a female subject. The previously invisible, unnamed victim of rape gained an identity. The audience was forced to reflect on its responsibility; its empathy was elicited and translated to the space of awareness in which sexual violence could be addressed.
In a slide series, ''People Looking at Blood Moffitt'' (1973), she pours blood and rags on a sidewalk and photographs a seemingly endless stream of people walking by without stopping, until the man next door (the storefront window bears the name H.F. Moffitt) comes out to clean it up. Mendieta also created the female silhouette using nature as both her canvas and her medium. She used her body to create silhouettes in the grass; she created silhouettes in sand and dirt; she created silhouettes of fire and filmed them burning. ''Untitled ( Ochún)'' (1981), named for the Santería goddess of waters, once pointed southward from the shore at
Key Biscayne Key Biscayne ( es, Cayo Vizcaíno, link=no) is an island located in Miami-Dade County, Florida, located between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay. It is the southernmost of the barrier islands along the Atlantic coast of Florida, and lies sou ...
, Florida. ''Ñañigo Burial'' (1976), with a title taken from the popular name for an
Afro-Cuban Afro-Cubans or Black Cubans are Cubans of West African ancestry. The term ''Afro-Cuban'' can also refer to historical or cultural elements in Cuba thought to emanate from this community and the combining of native African and other cultural el ...
religious brotherhood, is a floor installation of black candles dripping wax in the outline of the artist's body. Through these works, which cross the boundaries of performance, film, and photography, Mendieta explored her relationship with a place as well as a larger relationship with mother Earth or the "Great Goddess" figure. Blocker, Jane. ''Where Is Ana Mendieta?: Identity, Performativity, and Exile''. Duke University Press, May 1999. p. 47–48.
Mary Jane Jacob Mary Jane Jacob is an American curator, writer, and educator from Chicago, Illinois. She is a professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and is the Executive Director of Exhibitions and Exhibition Studies. She has held posts as Chief C ...
suggests in her exhibition catalog ''Ana Mendieta: The "Silueta" Series (1973–1980)'' that much of Mendieta's work was influenced by her interest in the religion Santería, as well as a connection to Cuba. Jacob attributes Mendieta's "ritualistic use of blood," and the use of gunpowder, earth, and rock, to Santería's ritualistic traditions. Jacob also points out the significance of the mother figure, referring to the Mayan deity
Ix Chel Ixchel or Ix Chel () is the 16th-century name of the aged jaguar Goddess of midwifery and medicine in ancient Maya culture. In a similar parallel, she corresponds, to Toci Yoalticitl "Our Grandmother the Nocturnal Physician", an Aztec earth God ...
, the mother of the gods. Many have interpreted Mendieta's recurring use of this mother figure, and her own female silhouette, as
feminist art Feminist art is a category of art associated with the late 1960s and 1970s feminist movement. Feminist art highlights the societal and political differences women experience within their lives. The hopeful gain from this form of art is to bri ...
. However, because Mendieta's work explores many ideas including life, death, identity, and place all at once, it cannot be categorized as part of one idea or movement. Claire Raymond argues that the ''Silueta Series,'' as a photographic archive, should be read for its photographicity rather than merely as documentation of earthworks. In ''Corazon de Roca con Sangre (Rock Heart with Blood)'' (1975) Mendieta kneels next to an impression of her body that has been cut into the soft muddy riverbank.


Photo etchings of the ''Rupestrian Sculptures'' (1981)

As documented in the book ''Ana Mendieta: A Book of Works'', edited by Bonnie Clearwater, before her death, Mendieta was working on a series of photo-etchings of cave sculptures she had created at Escaleras de Jaruco, Jaruco State Park in Havana, Cuba.Clearwater, Bonnie, ed. A''na Mendieta: A Book of Works''. Grassfield Press, November 1993. p. 11. She had returned to the island as a part of a cultural exchange group and was eager to begin exploring her birthplace after having spent 19 years in exile. The soft limestone and undulating landscapes provided a new scope for Mendieta's art as she began to explore the cultural identity that she had ling been forsaken. Her sculptures were entitled ''Rupestrian Sculptures'' (1981)—the title refers to living among rocks—and the book of photographic etchings that Mendieta created to preserve these sculptures is a testament to the intertextuality of her work. Clearwater explains that the photographs of Mendieta's sculptures were often as important as the piece they were documenting because the nature of Mendieta's work was so impermanent. She spent as much time and thought on the creation of the photographs as she did on the sculptures themselves. Mendieta returned to Havana, the place of her birth, for this project, but she was still exploring her sense of displacement and loss, according to Clearwater.Clearwater, Bonnie, ed. A''na Mendieta: A Book of Works''. Grassfield Press, November 1993. p. 18. The ''Rupestrian Sculptures'' that Mendieta created were also influenced by the
Taíno The Taíno were a historic indigenous people of the Caribbean whose culture has been continued today by Taíno descendant communities and Taíno revivalist communities. At the time of European contact in the late 15th century, they were the pri ...
people, "native inhabitants of the pre-Hispanic Antilles," whom Mendieta became fascinated by and studied.Clearwater, Bonnie, ed. A''na Mendieta: A Book of Works''. Grassfield Press, November 1993. p. 12. Mendieta had completed five photo-etchings of the ''Rupestrian Sculptures'' before she died in 1985. The book ''Ana Mendieta: A Book of Works'', published in 1993, contains both photographs of the sculptures and Mendieta's notes on the project.


''Body Tracks'' (1982)

''Body Tracks'' (''Rastros Corporales'') debuted on April 8, 1982, in Franklin Furnace in New York City. The tracks are long, blurry marks made by Mendieta on a large piece of white paper attached to a wall. While recordings of the sacred music of Afro-Cuban Santeria were heard, Mendieta dipped her hands and forearms into a mixture of tempera paint and animal blood, pressed her hands and arms firmly to the paper's surface, and slid down towards the floor. The performance was documented in the 1987 film ''Ana Mendieta: Fuego de Tierra'', and described by scholar Alexandra Gonzenbach:
In the short piece, the artist enters the studio space, while Cuban music plays in the background. She dips her hands and forearms into animal blood, places her back to the camera, lifts her arms and places them on a large sheet of white paper attached to a wall, and then proceeds to slowly drag her arms down the page, until almost reaching the bottom. She then walks off screen and out of the performance space. The camera, documentation, and performance stops.
The resultant pieces of paper were preserved by the artist after the event, and appear now as works of art in their own right in the collection of the
Rose Art Museum The Rose Art Museum, founded in 1961, is a part of Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, US. Named after benefactors Edward and Bertha Rose, it offers temporary exhibitions, and it displays and houses works of art from the permanent col ...
at Brandeis University. A still photo from the exhibit was the cover art of the
Third Woman Press Third Woman Press (TWP) is a ''Queer and Feminist of Color'' publisher forum committed to feminist and queer of color decolonial politics and projects. It was founded in 1979 by Norma Alarcón in Bloomington, Indiana. She aimed to create a new po ...
edition of the feminist anthology This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color (2002, )


Film works (1971–1980)

In the 1970s Mendieta made number of experimental films. These include: *''Creek (1974)'' **This film builds on the Shakespearean character of
Ophelia Ophelia () is a character in William Shakespeare's drama '' Hamlet'' (1599–1601). She is a young noblewoman of Denmark, the daughter of Polonius, sister of Laertes and potential wife of Prince Hamlet, who, due to Hamlet's actions, ends u ...
. It was shot in San Felipe Creek, Oaxaca, Mexico. In the film, Mendieta merges with the water.Morrissey, Siobhan
Museum mounts first-ever full exhibit of the works of Ana Mendieta
iami Herald March 18, 2016
*''Ochún (1981)'' **Mendieta filmed ''Ochun'' in
Key Biscayne, Florida Key Biscayne is an island town in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The population was 12,344 at the 2010 census. Key Biscayne lies south of Miami Beach and east of Miami. The village is connected to Miami via the Rickenbacker Causeway, originall ...
. It is about the Santería goddess, Ochún—the Orisha of the river. It features sand silhouettes, seagull sounds, and ocean waves, and emphasizes themes of longing for another land. It was her last film. **One of the most influential Cuban-American artists of the post-World War II era, Mendieta’s (1948-1985) synthesis of sculpture, earth art and performance unflinchingly investigated what it means to be human. *''Chicken Movie, Chicken Piece (1972) *''Parachute (1973)'' *''Moffitt Building Piece (1973)'' *''Grass Breathing (1974)'' *''Dog (1974)'' *''Mirage (1974)'' *''Weather Balloon, Feathered Balloon (1974)'' *''Silueta Sangrienta (1975)'' *''Energy Charge (1975)'' *Untitled 1981 - "focuses on the outline of a figure Mendieta carved into the shoreline in Guanabo, a beach town in the artist’s home country of Cuba. Derived from Mendieta’s interest in indigenous Caribbean religion, and themes of exile and return, the shape of the female figure would become a common motif in Mendieta’s work by the early 1980s." *Esculturas Rupestres (Rupestrian Sculptures) 1981 - "emphasizes the importance of documentation in grasping the full scope of her practice." *Birth (Gunpowder Works) 1981 - "features a female silhouette sculpted from wet mud as it sparks and burns out amid the landscape." In 2016 a traveling exhibition of her film work was mounted by the Katherine E. Nash Gallery of the
University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...
with the title ''Covered in Time and History: The Films of Ana Mendieta''.


Film works released posthumously (1985–present)

The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, LLC, and family members found several films after her death while looking for work to be included in a retrospective at the
New Museum The New Museum of Contemporary Art, founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker, is a museum in New York City at 235 Bowery, on Manhattan's Lower East Side. History The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-named New Sch ...
in 1987. In 2016, more films were uncovered and digitized in anticipation of a documentary directed by the artist's niece, Raquel Cecilia Mendieta. *''Pain of Cuba/Body I Am (2018)'' *''The Earth That Covers Us Speaks (2018)''


Exhibitions and collections

Mendieta presented a solo exhibition of her photographs at A.I.R. Gallery in New York in 1979. She also curated and wrote the introductory catalog essay for an exhibition at A.I.R. in 1981 entitled ''Dialectics of Isolation: An Exhibition of Third World Women Artists of the United States'', which featured the work of artists such as
Judy Baca Judith Francisca Baca (born September 20, 1946) is an American artist, activist, and professor of Chicano studies, world arts, and cultures based at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is the co-founder and artistic director of the Soc ...
,
Senga Nengudi Senga Nengudi (née Sue Irons; born September 18, 1943) is an African Americans, African-American visual artist and curator. She is best known for her abstract sculptures that combine found objects and choreographed performance. She is part of a ...
,
Howardena Pindell Howardena Pindell (born April 14, 1943) is an American artist, curator, and educator. She is known as a painter and mixed media artist, her work explores texture, color, structures, and the process of making art; it is often political, addressing ...
, and
Zarina Zarina is a feminine name derived from the Slavic word “tsar / tzar” (царь), a title used by Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers, plus sometimes the suffix (itsa), the title of a female autocratic ruler (monarch) of Bulgaria or Russia, or the ...
. The New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York hosted Mendieta's first survey exhibition in 1987. Since her death, Mendieta has been recognized with international solo museum retrospectives such as ''Ana Mendieta'', Art Institute of Chicago (2011); and ''Ana Mendieta in Context: Public and Private Work'', De La Cruz Collection, Miami (2012). In 2004 the
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall, in Washington, D.C., the United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was desig ...
in Washington, D.C., organized ''Earth Body, Sculpture and Performance'', a major retrospective that traveled to the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York,
Des Moines Art Center The Des Moines Art Center is an art museum with an extensive collection of paintings, sculpture, modern art and mixed media. It was established in 1948 in Des Moines, Iowa. History The Art Center traces its roots to 1916, when the Des Moines A ...
, Iowa, and
Miami Art Museum Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at th ...
, Florida (2004). In 2017 her work was presented in the retrospective solo show ''Ana Mendieta / Covered in Time and History'' at
Bildmuseet Bildmuseet ( en, Museum of Visual Arts) is a contemporary art museum in Umeå, northern Sweden. History The museum was founded in 1981 by Umeå University and it exhibits Swedish and international contemporary art, visual culture, design, and a ...
, Umeå University, Sweden. In 2019, her work was displayed in the exhibition ''La Tierra Habla (The Earth Speaks)'' at Galerie Lelong, NYC, New York. Mendieta's work features in many major public collections, including the
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 89th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It is the permanent home of a continuously exp ...
,
Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
,
Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...
, and
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
in New York; the Art Institute of Chicago;
Centre Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...
, Paris; Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain,
Geneva , neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier , website = https://www.geneve.ch/ Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...
;
Tate Collection Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...
, London; and the Nasher Sculpture Center.


Death and controversy

Ana Mendieta died on September 8, 1985, in New York City, after falling from her 34th-floor apartment in
Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...
at 300 Mercer Street. She lived there with her husband of eight months,
minimalist In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post– World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Do ...
sculptor
Carl Andre Carl Andre (born September 16, 1935) is an American minimalist artist recognized for his ordered linear and grid format sculptures and for the suspected murder of contemporary and wife, Ana Mendieta. His sculptures range from large public art ...
, who may have pushed her out the window. She fell 33 stories onto the roof of a deli. Just prior to her death, neighbors heard the couple arguing violently.William Wilson (February 18, 1998)
Haunting Works From Cuban Exile Mendieta
''Los Angeles Times''.
The neighbors heard Mendieta scream out "no" right before her death and Andre had scratches all over his face. There were no eyewitnesses to the events that led up to Mendieta's death.Vincent Patrick (June 10, 1990)

''The New York Times''.
A recording of Andre's 911 call showed him saying: "My wife is an artist, and I'm an artist, and we had a quarrel about the fact that I was more, eh, exposed to the public than she was. And she went to the bedroom, and I went after her, and she went out the window." During three years of legal proceedings, Andre's lawyer described Mendieta's death as a possible accident or a suicide. After a nonjury trial, Andre was acquitted of second-degree murder in February 1988. The acquittal caused an uproar among feminists in the art world, and remains controversial to this day. In 2010, a symposium called ''Where Is Ana Mendieta?'' was held at New York University to commemorate the 25th anniversary of her death. In May 2014, the feminist protest group No Wave Performance Task Force staged a protest in front of the
Dia Art Foundation Dia Art Foundation is a nonprofit organization that initiates, supports, presents, and preserves art projects. It was established in 1974 by Philippa de Menil, the daughter of Houston arts patron Dominique de Menil and an heiress to the Schlumb ...
's retrospective on Carl Andre. The group deposited piles of animal blood and guts in front of the establishment, with protesters donning transparent
tracksuit A tracksuit is an article of clothing consisting of two parts: trousers and a jacket usually with front zipper. It was originally intended for use in sports, mainly for athletes to wear over competition clothing (such as running shirt and shorts ...
s with "I Wish Ana Mendieta Was Still Alive" written on them. In March 2015, the ''No Wave Performance Task Force'' and a group of feminist poets from New York City traveled to Beacon, New York, to protest the Andre retrospective at Dia:Beacon, where they cried loudly in the main gallery, made "siluetas" in the snow on museum grounds, and stained the snow with paprika, sprinkles, and fake blood. In April 2017, protesters at an Andre retrospective handed out cards at the Geffen Contemporary museum with the statement: "Carl Andre is at MOCA Geffen. ''¿Dónde está Ana Mendieta?''" (Where is Ana Mendieta?). This was followed by an open letter to Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Director Philippe Vergne protesting the exhibit, from the group the Association of Hysteric Curators.


Legacy

In 2009, Mendieta was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the
Cintas Foundation Oscar Benjamin Cintas y Rodriguez, (31 Mar 1887 in Sagua la Grande, Cuba – 11 May 1957 in New York City, N.Y.) was a prominent sugar and railroad magnate who served as Cuba's ambassador to the United States from 1932 until 1934. Career He ...
. In 2018, ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' published a belated obituary for her that began, "Mendieta's art, sometimes violent, often unapologetically feminist and usually raw, left an indelible mark before her life was cut short." In 2010 she was the subject of Richard Move's controversial ''Where is Ana Mendieta? 25 Years Later - An Exhibition and Symposium,'' which included his film, ''BloodWork - The Ana Mendieta Story.''


See also

*
Ecofeminist art Ecofeminist art emerged in the 1970s in response to ecofeminist philosophy, that was particularly articulated by writers such as Carolyn Merchant, Val Plumwood, Donna Haraway, Starhawk, Greta Gaard, Karen J. Warren, and Rebecca Solnit. Those w ...
*
Environmental art Environmental art is a range of artistic practices encompassing both historical approaches to nature in art and more recent ecological and politically motivated types of works. Environmental art has evolved away from formal concerns, for example ...
*
Feminist art movement in the United States The feminist art movement in the United States began in the early 1970s and sought to promote the study, creation, understanding and promotion of women's art. First-generation feminist artists include Judy Chicago, Miriam Schapiro, Suzanne Lac ...
* Land art *
List of unsolved deaths This list of unsolved deaths includes well-known cases where: * The cause of death could not be officially determined. * The person's identity could not be established after they were found dead. * The cause is known, but the manner of death (homi ...
*
Performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...


References


Further reading

* * Best, Susan, "Ana Mendieta: Affect Miniatiarizatin, Emotional Ties and the Silueta Series," Visualizing Feeling: Affect and the Feminine Avant-Garde (London: I B Tauris, 2011) 92–115 * *
Del Valle, Alejandro (2016). "Ana Mendieta and Fray Ramón Pané: a link between contemporary art and Spanish colonial literature". ''Laocoonte. Revista de Estética y Teoría de las Artes'', 3, 101-120

Del Valle, Alejandro (2018). "The influences of archaeological ruins of yagul on the art of Ana Mendieta". ''Arte, Individuo y Sociedad'', 30 (1) 127-144


Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Traditional Fine Arts Organization, Inc.
Ana Mendieta: New Museum archive
* Cabañas, Kaira M. "Ana Mendieta: 'Pain of Cuba, body I Am.'" ''Woman's Art Journal'' 20, no. 1 (1999): 12–17. * Camhi, Leslie. "ART; Her Body, Herself". ''The New York Times'' 2004-06-20. * Crawford, Marisa. "Crying for Ana Mendieta at the Carl Andre Retrospective." Hyperallergic. 2015 * Gopnik, Blake. "'Silueta' of A Woman: Sizing Up Ana Mendieta." ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' p. N01. 2004-10-17. * Heartney, Eleanor. "Rediscovering Ana Mendieta." ''Art in America'' 92, no. 10 (2004): 139–143. * Howard, Christopher. "Ana Mendieta: Earth Body, Sculpture and Performance, 1972–1985." Art Book 12, no. 2 (May 2005): 21–22. Art Full Text (H.W. Wilson), EBSCOhost (accessed November 29, 2014). * Herrera, Gretel. ''Las huellas de Ana Mendieta.'' Fundación Cultural Enrique Loynaz, Santo Domingo. (Spanish) * Katz, Robert. ''Naked by the Window: The Fatal Marriage of Carl Andre and Ana Mendieta.''
Atlantic Monthly Press Grove Atlantic, Inc. is an American independent publisher, based in New York City. Formerly styled "Grove/Atlantic, Inc.", it was created in 1993 by the merger of Grove Press and Atlantic Monthly Press. As of 2018 Grove Atlantic calls itself "A ...
, 1990. * Kwon, Miwon. "Bloody Valentines: Afterimages by Ana Mendieta." In: Catherine de Zegher (ed.), ''Inside the Visible''. The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston & MIT Press, 1996.
"Making Sense of Modern Art"
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. * Moure, Gloria et al. ''Ana Mendieta''. Poligrafa, April 2, 2001. * Oransky, Howard, Covered in Time and History: The Films of Ana Mendieta, University of California Press, 2015 * Patrick, Vincent. "A Death in the Art World." ''The New York Times'' 1990-06-10. p. 428. * Perreault, John and Petra Barreras del Rio. ''Ana Mendieta: A Retrospective''. The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, 1987. * Raine, Anne. "Embodied Geographies: Subjectivity and Materiality in the Work of Ana Mendieta." In ''Feminist Approaches to Theory and Methodology: An Interdisciplinary Reader'', edited by Sharlene Hesse-Biber, Christina Gilmartin, and Robin Lydenberg, 259–286. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. * Rauch, Heidi, and Federico Suro. "Ana Mendieta's Primal Scream." ''Américas'' 44, no.5 (1992): 44–48. * Szymanek, Angelique. "Bloody Pleasures: Ana Mendieta's Violent Tableaux," ''Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society'' 41, no. 4 (Summer 2016): 895–925 * Viso, Olga. ''Ana Mendieta: Earth Body.''
Hatje Cantz Hatje Cantz Verlag (English: Hatje Cantz Publishing) is a German book publisher specialising in photography, art, architecture and design. It was established in 1945 by Gerd HatjeAna Mendieta
Exhibition at Fundació Antoni Tàpies * Redfern, Christine et al. ''Who is Ana Mendieta?'' Feminist Press, 2011. {{DEFAULTSORT:Mendieta, Ana 1948 births 1985 deaths 20th-century American women artists American feminists American people of Cuban descent Cuban contemporary artists Cuban feminists Deaths by defenestration Exiles of the Cuban Revolution in the United States Feminist artists Hispanic and Latino American artists Hispanic and Latino American women in the arts People from Havana Unsolved deaths Hispanic and Latino American feminists