Who is Ana Mendieta?
Carl Andre. . ( m. 1985) . Ana Mendieta (November 18, 1948 – September 8, 1985) was a Cuban-American performance artist, sculptor, painter and video artist who is best known for her "earth-body" artwork. Born in Havana, Mendieta left for the United States in 1961.
Where did Ana Mendieta live?
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, a collaborative program run by the US government and the Catholic Charities. Ana and Raquelin were among 14,000 children who immigrated 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. 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.
How many photos did Ana Mendieta have?
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.
What did Mendieta do in high school?
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, she was inspired by the avant-garde community and the hills of Iowa's landscape.
What was the Silueta series?
The Silueta Series (1973–1980) 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 onto a wall.
What was Mendieta's first work?
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.
When did Ana Mendieta join the Artists in Residence?
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.
Who is Ana Mendieta?
Until recently, the question asked by those feminist protesters might have been amended to "Who is Ana Mendieta?", so unknown was her art outside the rarefied world of feminist art criticism. But, as the recent big show of her work at the Whitney Museum in New York and the imminent retrospective at the Hayward gallery in London attests, Mendieta is undergoing a reappraisal as a pioneering artist whose work, as the Hayward's artistic director, Ralph Rugoff, notes "ranged nomadically across practices associated with body art, land art, performance, sculpture, photography and film".
How many floors did Ana Mendieta fall from?
Ana Mendieta: death of an artist foretold in blood. The mystery of how the Cuban artist Ana Mendieta fell 34 floors from the window of her New York apartment in 1985 has echoes in the dark, ritualistic images she left behind. In pictures: the art of Ana Mendieta.
What is Mendieta's art?
Cuban-born and American-raised, Mendieta described her work as "earth-body" art. From 1971, when she had her first solo show while an MA student at the University of Iowa, until her death, she created a diverse collection of work that included silhouettes of her body created in mud, earth, rocks, wild flowers and leaves, performance pieces that evoked the folk and occult traditions of her native Cuba as well as her beloved Mexico and subversive self-portraits that played with notions of beauty, belonging and gender. In her performance pieces, where she sometimes used blood "as a very, powerful magical thing", she evoked the power of female sexuality as well as the horror of male sexual violence. In her photographic self-portraits, she pressed her face against glass to distort her features or pictured herself dripping in blood or disguised as a man with glued-on facial hair.
Where did Mendieta move to?
I had a hard time thinking he would push her.". Mendieta moved to Rome in 1983 on a prestigious American Academy residency and fell in love with the city, describing it to friends as a cross between Cuba and New York. "She felt accepted there in a way she never was in America," says Rich. "She could be herself.".
When did Mendieta travel to Mexico?
In the summer of 1971 , Mendieta travelled to Mexico for research, describing the experience as "like going back to the source, being able to get some magic just by being there.". Her vision – of a unified art of the self, drawing on nature and place as well as performance and sculpture – was being formed.
When did Attie join the Air?
In 1979, also with Edelson's support, she joined the AIR all-women gallery on Wooster Street. "We didn't have a unifying agenda or way of thinking," says Attie, a founding member, "except that we wanted everything that men had in the art world. For most of us, that meant recognition.".
Who was Frida Kahlo's friend?
When Edelson organised a fancy-dress party for Louise Bourgeois, Mendieta went as Frida Kahlo.
Overview
Ana Mendieta (November 18, 1948 – September 8, 1985) was a Cuban-American performance artist, sculptor, painter and video artist who is best known for her "earth-body" artwork. Born in Havana, Mendieta left for the United States in 1961.
Early life and exile
Mendieta was born on November 18, 1948, in Havana, Cuba, 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 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 Cub…
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 o…
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, violence, life, death, identity, place and belonging. Her works are generally associated with the four basic elements of nature. Mendieta often focused on a spiritual and physical connection with the Earth. She felt that by uniting her b…
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, Senga Nengudi, Howardena Pindell, and Zarina. The New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York hosted Mendieta's first survey exhibition in 1987…
Death and controversy
Ana Mendieta died on September 8, 1985, in New York City, after falling from her 34th-floor apartment in Greenwich Village at 300 Mercer Street. She lived there with her husband of eight months, minimalist sculptor Carl Andre, 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. The neighbors heard Mendieta scream out no and right before her death Andre had scratches al…
Legacy
Mendieta's death in 1985 came to define her legacy which overshadowed the pioneering nature of her art. In 2009, Mendieta was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Cintas Foundation. In 2018, The New York Times 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 An…
See also
• Ecofeminist art
• Environmental art
• Feminist art movement in the United States
• Land art
• List of unsolved deaths