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Ana Mendieta

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Ana Mendieta
File:Ana Mendieta Untitled (Facial Hair Transplants) 1972.jpg
Untitled (Facial Hair Transplants), 1972
Born(1948-11-18)November 18, 1948
DiedSeptember 8, 1985(1985-09-08) (aged 36)
New York City, NY
NationalityCuban American
Known forPerformance art, sculpture, video art

Ana Mendieta (18 November 1948 – 8 September 1985) was a Cuban American performance artist, sculptor, painter and video artist who is best known for her "earth-body" art work.

Early life and exile

Mendieta was born in Havana, Cuba to a family prominent in the country's politics and society.[1] At age 12, in order to escape Fidel Castro's regime, Ana and her 14-year-old sister Raquelin were sent to the United States by their parents. Through Operation Peter Pan, a collaborative program run by the U.S. Government and the Catholic Charities, Mendieta and her sister spent their first weeks in refugee camps before moving to several institutions and foster homes in Iowa.[2] In 1966, Mendieta was reunited with her mother and younger brother; her father joined them in 1979, having spent 18 years in a Cuban political prison for his involvement in the Bay of Pigs invasion.[3]

Education

Mendieta attended the University of Iowa where she earned a BA, an MA in Painting and an MFA in Intermedia under the instruction of acclaimed artist Hans Breder.[4] Through the course of her career, she created work in Cuba, Mexico, Italy, and the United States.

Life and Work

Mendieta's work was generally autobiographical and focused on themes including feminism, violence, life, death, place and belonging. Mendieta often focused on a spiritual and physical connection with the Earth, most particularly in her "Silueta Series" (1973–1980). The series 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.

In 1983 Mendieta was awarded the Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome. While in residence in Rome, Mendieta began creating art "objects," including drawings and sculptures. She continued to use natural elements in her work.

Ana Mendieta died on September 8, 1985 in New York from a fall from her 34th floor apartment in Greenwich Village's 11 Waverly Place,[5] where she lived with her husband of eight months, minimalist sculptor Carl Andre. Just prior to her death, neighbors heard the couple arguing violently.[6] There were no eyewitnesses.[7] Andre was tried and acquitted of her murder. During the three-year[8] trial, Andre's lawyer described Mendieta's death as a possible accident or suicide. In the absence of conclusive evidence, and given the lack of any impartial witness to the events, the truth about her death will probably never be known.

Silueta Series (1973-1980)

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, and performance art. Mendieta was possibly the first to combine these genres in what she called "earth-body" sculptures (Jacob 1999, p. 3). 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.[9] Appalled by the brutal rape and murder of nursing student Sara Ann Otten 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.[10] 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.[11]

Mendieta also created the female silhouette using nature as both her canvas and her medium. She used her body to create silhouettes in 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, Florida. Ñañigo Burial (1976), with a title taken from the popular name for an Afro-Cuban religious brotherhood, is a floor installation of black candles dripping wax in the outline of the artist's body.[12] Through these works, which cross the boundaries of performance, film and photography, Mendieta explored her relationship with place as well as a larger relationship with mother Earth or the "Great Goddess" figure (Blocker 1999, p. 47-48).

Mary Jane Jacob suggests in her book 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 1991, p. 4). Jacob attributes Mendieta's "ritualistic use of blood" (Jacob 1991, p. 10) and the use of gunpowder, earth and rock to Santería's ritualistic traditions (Jacob 1991, p. 17).

Jacob also points out the significance of the mother figure, referring to the Mayan deity Ix Chel, the mother of the Gods (Jacob 1991, p. 14). Many have interpreted Mendieta's recurring use of this mother figure, and her own female silhouette, as feminist art. 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.

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 1993, p. 11). Her sculptures were entitled Rupestrian Sculptures (1981) - the title refers to living among rocks[13] - and the book of photographic etchings that Mendieta was creating to preserve these sculptures is a testament to the intertextuality of Mendieta's work. Clearwater explains how 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. Mendieta spent as much time and thought on the creation of the photographs as she did on the sculptures themselves (Clearwater 1993, p. 11).

Mendieta returned to Havana, Cuba, the place of her birth birth for this project, but she was still exploring her sense of displacement and loss, according to Clearwater (Clearwater 1993, p. 18). The Rupestrian Sculptures that Mendieta created were also influenced by the Tainan people, "native inhabitants of the pre-hispanic Antilles," which Mendieta became fascinated by and studied (Clearwater 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 as well as Mendieta's notes on the project (Clearwater 1993, p. 20).

Body Tracks (1982)

Body Tracks (Rastros Corporales) are long, blurry marks that Mendieta's hands and forearms made as they slid down a large piece of white paper during a performance heightened with pulsing Cuban music.[14]

Exhibitions

In 1979 Mendieta presented a solo exhibition of her photographs at A.I.R. Gallery in New York.[15] 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); "Ana Mendieta in Context: Public and Private Work", De La Cruz Collection, Miami (2012).[16] In 2004 the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., organized "Earth Body, Sculpture and Performance", a major retrospective that travelled to the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Des Moines Art Center, Iowa, and Miami Art Museum, Florida (2004).[17]

Collections

Mendieta's work features in many major public collections, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Museum of Modern Art, New York, Art Institute of Chicago, Centre Pompidou, Paris, Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain, Geneva, and Tate Collection, London.[18]

Recognition

In 2009 Mendieta was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Cintas Foundation.[19]

Art market

Ana Mendieta's estate is managed by the Galerie Lelong in New York City. The estate is also represented by Alison Jacques Gallery, London.

References

  1. ^ Leslie Camhi (June 20, 2004), Her Body, Herself New York Times.
  2. ^ Ana Mendieta Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.
  3. ^ Ana Mendieta Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.
  4. ^ Viso, Olga (2004). Ana Mendieta: Earth Body. Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz Publishers.
  5. ^ Carl Swanson (April 1, 2012), Maximum Outrage Over Minimalist Sculptor New York Magazine.
  6. ^ William Wilson (February 18, 1998), Haunting Works From Cuban Exile Mendieta Los Angeles Times.
  7. ^ Vincent Patrick (June 10, 1990), A Death In The Art World New York Times.
  8. ^ Vincent Patrick (June 10, 1990), A Death In The Art World New York Times.
  9. ^ Ana Mendieta, Untitled (Rape Scene) (1973) Tate Modern, London.
  10. ^ Kay Larson (February 16, 2001), Vito Acconci and Ana Mendieta -- 'A Relationship Study, 1969-1976' New York Times.
  11. ^ Kay Larson (February 16, 2001), Vito Acconci and Ana Mendieta -- 'A Relationship Study, 1969-1976' New York Times.
  12. ^ Leslie Camhi (June 20, 2004), Her Body, Herself New York Times.
  13. ^ William Wilson (February 18, 1998), Haunting Works From Cuban Exile Mendieta Los Angeles Times.
  14. ^ Cathy Curtis (March 20, 1989), Mendieta Exhibit Reveals Lush, Primal Power Los Angeles Times.
  15. ^ Ana Mendieta Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.
  16. ^ Ana Mendieta Alison Jacques Gallery, London.
  17. ^ Ana Mendieta Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.
  18. ^ Ana Mendieta Alison Jacques Gallery, London.
  19. ^ Ana Mendieta Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.
  • Jacob, Mary Jane. "Ana Mendieta: The "Silueta" Series, 1973-1980." Galerie Lelong, 1991.
  • Blocker, Jane. Where Is Ana Mendieta?: Identity, Performativity, and Exile. Duke University Press, May, 1999.
  • Clearwater, Bonnie, ed. Ana Mendieta: A Book of Works. Grassfield Press, November, 1993.

Bibliography

  • Blocker, Jane. Where Is Ana Mendieta?: Identity, Performativity, and Exile. Duke University Press, May, 1999.
  • Cabañas, Kaira M. "Ana Mendieta: 'Pain of Cuba, body I Am.'" Woman's Art Journal 20, no. 1 (1999): 12-17.
  • Clearwater, Bonnie, ed. Ana Mendieta: A Book of Works. Grassfield Press, November, 1993.
  • Heartney, Eleanor. "Rediscovering Ana Mendieta." Art in America 92, no. 10 (2004): 139-143.
  • Jacob, Mary Jane. "Ana Mendieta: The "Silueta" Series, 1973-1980." Galerie Lelong, 1991.
  • Katz, Robert. Naked by the Window: The Fatal Marriage of Carl Andre and Ana Mendieta. Atlantic Monthly Press, 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.
  • Moure, Gloria et al. Ana Mendieta. Poligrafa, April 2, 2001.
  • 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.
  • Viso, Olga. Ana Mendieta: Earth Body. Hatje Cantz Publishers in collaboration with the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, 2004.
  • Viso, Olga. Unseen Mendieta: The Unpublished Works of Ana Mendieta. New York: Prestel, 2008.
  • Walker, Joanna, ‘The body is present even if in disguise: tracing the trace in the art work of Nancy Spero and Ana Mendieta’. Tate Papers, Spring 2009. See http://www.tate.org.uk/research/tateresearch/tatepapers/09spring/joanna-walker.shtm

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