Ana Mendieta, Untitled (Facial Hair Transplants), 1972. (estate print 1997). Suite of seven estate color photographs. Four sheets: 13 ¼ × 20 in. (33.7 × 50.8 cm); three sheets: 20 × 13 ¼ in. (50.8 × 33.7 cm). © The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, LLC. Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co.
During an era of rebels and revolutionaries, Cuban-born artist Ana Mendieta (1948–1985) was a singular figure carving her own path, fearlessly speaking truth to power about subjects like campus rape and domestic violence at a time when these conversations were still taboo.
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Hailing from a prominent political family in Havana, Mendieta and her older sister Raquelin were sent to America in 1961 after Fidel Castro came to power. At just 12 and 14 years old, the sisters were on their own until their mother and younger brother arrived in the US five years later. Their father, who was jailed for 18 years in the wake of the Bay of Pigs revolt, was finally reunited with his family in 1979.
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Through her art, Mendieta transformed fear, pain, and rage into powerful and provocative meditations on gender, identity, assault, death, place, and belonging. Using her body as a vessel of flesh, bone, and blood, she immersed herself in performance art, body art, and land art to create raw, visceral work that channeled the rituals of her native land and questioned society’s treatment of women.
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But Mendieta’s groundbreaking career came to a sudden and violent end when she died falling from the 34th floor of her New York apartment at the age of 36. The circumstances of her death are still shrouded in controversy. Her husband, the sculptor Carl Andre, was charged with Mendieta’s murder, but he was ultimately acquitted on the grounds of reasonable doubt.
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Because much of Mendieta’s work was ephemeral, her process and the documentation of her art was as significant as the final work itself. It is these photographs and films that remain, reminding the world of her brief but powerful career. During Mendieta’s life, she produced more than 200 works, selections of which are currently on view in Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960-1985 at the Brooklyn Museum of Art and Covered in Time and History: The Films of Ana Mendieta at Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin.
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In a rare interview, Raquel Cecilia, the artist’s niece and the Associate Administrator for the Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, spoke with VICE about Mendieta’s life and legacy.
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Ana Mendieta, Silueta Sangrienta, 1975. Super-8mm film transferred to high-definition digital media, color, silent. Running time: 1:51 minutes. Edition of 8 with 3 APs. © The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, LLC Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co.
Ana Mendieta, Sweating Blood, 1973. Super-8mm film transferred to high-definition digital media, color, silent. Running time: 3:18 minutes. Edition of 6 with 3 APs. © The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, LLC Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co.