Ana Mendieta facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Ana Mendieta
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Ana Mendieta in 1981
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| Born | November 18, 1948 Havana, Cuba
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| Died | September 8, 1985 (aged 36) New York City, US
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| Education | University of Iowa |
| Known for | Performance art, sculpture, video art |
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Ana Mendieta (born November 18, 1948 – died September 8, 1985) was a Cuban-American artist. She was known for her unique "earth-body" artwork. This type of art connected her body with nature. She was also a sculptor, painter, and video artist. Many people see her as one of the most important Cuban-American artists after World War II. Ana Mendieta was born in Havana, Cuba. She moved to the United States in 1961.
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Early Life and Moving to the US
Ana Mendieta was born on November 18, 1948, in Havana, Cuba. Her family was wealthy and important in Cuban politics. Her father, Ignacio Alberto Mendieta de Lizáur, was a lawyer. He was also the nephew of Carlos Mendieta, who was once the president of Cuba. Her mother, Raquel Oti de Rojas, was a chemist and researcher. Her grandmother was related to Carlos Maria de Rojas Cruzat, a sugar mill owner. He was famous for his role in Cuba's fight for independence from Spain.
In 1961, when Ana was 12 and her sister Raquelin was 15, they were sent to the United States. This happened through a program called Operation Peter Pan. It was a joint effort by the US government and Catholic Charities. The program helped Cuban children leave Cuba because of Fidel Castro's government. Ana and Raquelin were among 14,000 children who came to the US this way. Their parents signed a special paper called a power of attorney. This paper made sure the sisters stayed together.
The sisters first stayed in refugee camps. Then they moved between different homes and foster families in Iowa. In 1966, Ana was reunited with her mother and younger brother. Her father joined them in 1979. He had spent 18 years in a political prison in Cuba. This was because he was involved in the Bay of Pigs invasion.
Education and Art School
In Cuba, Ana grew up in a protected, upper-class home. She went to a private Catholic school for girls. When she and her sister moved to Iowa, they went to a special school. This was because the court wanted to avoid sending them to a state institution. Ana's English vocabulary was very small when she started school in the US. In junior high, she discovered she loved art.
She first studied French and art. Later, she moved to the University of Iowa. There, she was inspired by the new and experimental art scene. She also loved the hills of Iowa's landscape. She earned a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in painting. She also got another master's degree in Intermedia. This was a program that combined different art forms. Her teacher was the famous artist Hans Breder.
While in art school, Mendieta faced many challenges. During college, her art explored spiritual ideas and old rituals. After finishing graduate school, she moved to New York City.
Her Artworks
Throughout her career, Ana Mendieta created art in Cuba, Mexico, Italy, and the United States. Her art often told stories about her own life. She was displaced from her home country, Cuba. Her work explored themes like feminism, life, death, identity, and belonging. Many of her pieces were outdoor performances that didn't last forever. She also made photographs, sculptures, and drawings.
Her art is often linked to the four basic elements of nature: earth, air, fire, and water. Mendieta often focused on a spiritual and physical connection with the earth. She felt that by joining her body with the earth, she could feel complete again. She once said, "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." She made over 200 artworks using earth as a sculpting material. Her methods were often influenced by Afro-Cuban traditions.
Working with A.I.R. Gallery
In 1978, Ana Mendieta joined the Artists In Residence Inc (A.I.R. Gallery) in New York. This was the first art gallery in the United States created for women artists. It allowed her to meet and work with other women artists. These artists were leading the feminist movement of that time. Mendieta was also very involved in running the A.I.R. Gallery. She believed it was important for her to be part of all her artworks.
After two years, she felt that American Feminism mainly focused on white middle-class women. She wanted her art to challenge this view. She met her future husband, Carl Andre, at the gallery. In 1983, Mendieta won the Rome Prize. This award allowed her to live in Rome, Italy. While there, she started making art "objects," like drawings and sculptures. She continued to use natural elements in her work.
Silueta Series (1973–1985)
In her Silueta Series (1973–1985), Mendieta created female shapes in nature. She used materials like mud, sand, and grass. She also used leaves, twigs, and even blood. She would make body prints or draw her outline onto a wall. She did this to show herself becoming part of the earth. It was also a way to perform rituals.
When she started her Silueta Series in the 1970s, many artists were trying new art forms. These included land art, body art, and performance art. Mendieta was perhaps the first to combine these styles. She called her works "earth-body" sculptures. She often used her body to explore and connect with the Earth. An example is her piece Imagen de Yagul. This was part of the Silueta Works, Mexico, 1973–1977 series. This series was shown at the Pérez Art Museum Miami from 2020 to 2021.
Untitled (Ochún) (1981) was named after the Santería goddess of waters. It once pointed south from the shore at Key Biscayne, Florida. Ñañigo Burial (1976) is a floor artwork. It uses black candles dripping wax in the shape of a body. The title comes from a name for an Afro-Cuban religious group. Through these works, Mendieta explored her connection to places. She also explored her connection to Mother Earth or the "Great Goddess."
Art expert Mary Jane Jacob suggests that Mendieta's work was influenced by Santería. This is a religion she was interested in. Jacob also notes Mendieta's connection to Cuba. Jacob links Mendieta's use of blood, gunpowder, earth, and rock to Santería's traditions.
Jacob also highlights the importance of the mother figure in Mendieta's art. She refers to Ix Chel, a Mayan goddess. Many people see Mendieta's repeated use of this mother figure and female shapes as feminist art. However, Mendieta's art explores many ideas at once. These include life, death, identity, and place. So, it cannot be put into just one category.
In Corazon de Roca con Sangre (Rock Heart with Blood) (1975), Mendieta kneels next to a body shape. This shape was cut into the soft, muddy riverbank.
Photo Etchings of the Rupestrian Sculptures (1981)
Before she died, Mendieta was working on a series of photo-etchings. These were of cave sculptures she made in Jaruco State Park in Havana, Cuba. She had returned to Cuba as part of a cultural exchange. She was excited to explore her birthplace after 19 years away. The soft limestone and rolling hills gave her new ideas for her art. She began to explore her cultural identity, which she had missed for so long.
Her sculptures were called Rupestrian Sculptures (1981). This name means "living among rocks." The book of photo-etchings Mendieta made helped save these sculptures. This shows how her work connected different art forms. Expert Bonnie Clearwater explains that the photographs of Mendieta's sculptures were often as important as the sculptures themselves. This is because Mendieta's art was often temporary. She spent as much time and thought on the photographs as she did on the sculptures.
Even though Mendieta returned to Havana, she was still exploring feelings of being displaced. Her Rupestrian Sculptures were also influenced by the Taíno people. These were the original people of the Caribbean islands before Europeans arrived. Mendieta was very interested in them and studied their culture.
Mendieta finished five photo-etchings of the Rupestrian Sculptures before she died in 1985. The book Ana Mendieta: A Book of Works, published in 1993, includes photos of the sculptures and Mendieta's notes.
Body Tracks (1982)
Body Tracks (Rastros Corporales) was first shown on April 8, 1982. This was at Franklin Furnace in New York City. The "tracks" are long, blurry marks. Mendieta made them on a large piece of white paper attached to a wall. The marks were made from a mix of tempera paint and animal blood.
Mendieta saved these pieces of paper after the event. They are now in the collection of the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University. A photo from this exhibit was used as the cover art for a feminist book. The book is called This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color (2002).
Film Works (1971–1980)
In the 1970s, Mendieta made several experimental films. These include:
- Creek (1974): This film is inspired by the character Ophelia from Shakespeare. It was filmed in San Felipe Creek, Oaxaca, Mexico. In the film, Mendieta blends with the water.
- 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)
- Ochún (1981): Mendieta filmed Ochun in Key Biscayne, Florida. It is about Ochún, the Orisha (goddess) of the river in Santería. It shows sand shapes, seagull sounds, and ocean waves. It focuses on themes of wanting to return to another land. This was her last film.
- Untitled (1981): This film shows the outline of a figure. Mendieta carved it into the shoreline in Guanabo, a beach town in Cuba. This shape became a common theme in her work. It came from her interest in Caribbean religion and themes of exile and return.
- Esculturas Rupestres (Rupestrian Sculptures; 1981): This film shows how important it was to record her art.
- Birth (Gunpowder Works; 1981): This film shows a female shape made from wet mud. It sparks and burns out in the landscape.
In 2016, an exhibition of her film work traveled to different places. It was called Covered in Time and History: The Films of Ana Mendieta.
Film Works Released After Her Death (1985–Present)
After Ana Mendieta's death, her family and art estate found several films. These were found while looking for art for a show at the New Museum in 1987. In 2016, even more films were discovered and made digital. This was for a documentary directed by her niece, Raquel Cecilia Mendieta.
- Pain of Cuba/Body I Am (2018)
- The Earth That Covers Us Speaks (2018)
Art Shows and Exhibitions
Mendieta had her own show of photographs at A.I.R. Gallery in New York in 1979. She also helped organize an exhibition there in 1981. It was called Dialectics of Isolation: An Exhibition of Third World Women Artists of the United States. She wrote the introduction for the show's catalog. This exhibition featured artists like Judy Baca, Senga Nengudi, Howardena Pindell, and Zarina.
The New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York held Mendieta's first major show in 1987. Since her death, Mendieta has been honored with international art shows. These include Ana Mendieta at the Art Institute of Chicago (2011). Another was Ana Mendieta in Context: Public and Private Work at the De La Cruz Collection, Miami (2012). In 2004, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., organized a big show called Earth Body, Sculpture and Performance. This show then traveled to the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Des Moines Art Center, Iowa; and Pérez Art Museum Miami, Florida (2004).
In 2017, her work was shown in a special exhibition. It was called Ana Mendieta / Covered in Time and History at Bildmuseet, Umeå University, Sweden.
In 2019, her work was displayed in the exhibition La Tierra Habla (The Earth Speaks) at Galerie Lelong, NYC, New York.
Where Her Art Can Be Seen
Mendieta's art is part of many important public collections. These include:
- The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York
- The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York
- The Museum of Modern Art in New York
- The Art Institute of Chicago
- Centre Pompidou, Paris
- Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain, Geneva
- Tate Collection, London
- The Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas
- The Pérez Art Museum Miami
Her Lasting Impact
In 2009, Mendieta received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Cintas Foundation.
In 2018, The New York Times published a special obituary for her. It said that Mendieta's art was sometimes powerful and often openly feminist. It left a lasting mark before her life ended too soon.
See Also
In Spanish: Ana Mendieta para niños
- Ecofeminist art
- Environmental art
- Feminist art movement in the United States
- Land art
- List of unsolved deaths
- Performance art
