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Ana Mendieta: Earth Body,
Sculpture and Performance 1972-1985
(above: Untitled (Body Tracks),
1974, Lifetime color photograph, 10 x 8 inches (25.4 x 20.3 cm);.Copyright
of The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, courtesy Galerie Lelong, New
York, NY)
The Smithsonian's
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, presents the most comprehensive survey
to date of over 100 works by Cuban-born artist Ana Mendieta (1948-1985).
"Ana Mendieta: Earth Body, Sculpture and Performance 1972-1985,"
organized by the museum's deputy director Olga Viso, is on view at the Hirshhorn
from October14 through January 2, 2005. The exhibition examines Mendieta's
life and development as an artist.
"For decades, the life and art of Ana Mendieta have
been a frequent source of intrigue and speculation as considerable debate
about her untimely death has dominated public and critical discussion. As
a result, the richness and complexity of her art, as well as its important
legacy to contemporary culture, have not been fully acknowledged,"
said Viso. "This exhibition decidedly shifts the focus to Mendieta's
life and significant production as an artist and places it in a broad international
context as well as the social and artistic fabric of the 1970s and 1980s."
The exhibition traces the artist's development from the
early performance-based works she made as a student at the University of
Iowa, where she was grounded in the conceptual and body-oriented practices
of the 1960s and 1970s, to the creation of independent sculptures and objects
made with fragile, earthen materials in the early 1980s. The objects on
view include photographs, drawings, sculptures and film documenting early
performance works and time-based actions in nature. The works are drawn
from numerous public and private collections in the United States and Europe,
as well as from the Hirshhorn's own significant holdings of Mendieta's art,
including many pieces rarely seen in public.
Rooted both in nature and in the body, Mendieta's art was
influenced by issues of personal identity and femininity, and distinguished
by the singular hybrid form she often created. Her earth-body works or "Silueta
Series" (silhouette series)-sculptural interventions in the landscape
wherein the artist inserted her naked figure (or its outline or contours)
in a natural setting-fused aspects of conceptual, process, performance,
body, feminist and land art. While contributing significantly to these varied
dialogues, Mendieta's work does not fit neatly within any of the accepted
terms used to describe artistic activity in the 1970s.
Embracing the ambitions of feminism, Mendieta quietly subverted
the monumental gestures of male land artists such as Robert Smithson and
Walter de Maria by working on and emphasizing the human scale in relation
to the landscape. Critical of the exclusion of artists of diverse races
and ethnicities from the art world, she also vehemently asserted her own
transcultural identity. Borrowing freely from a variety of cultural traditions
throughout the world, Mendieta frequently appropriated symbols and aspects
of the ritual practices of ancient and indigenous cultures of the Americas,
Africa and Europe. While denying all forms of boundaries, Mendieta's cipher-the
naked female form that performs in the studio, merges with the landscape,
is etched on a leaf or is burned into the soil or a tree trunk-remained
at the center of her production.
Born in 1948 in Havana, Mendieta fled Castro's revolution
as a 12-year-old and came to the United States in 1961 without her parents.
Her personal and professional development was greatly informed by the painful
experience of exile as well as the cross-fertilization of Caribbean and
North American cultures. In 1980, she returned to the island of her birth,
18 years after her traumatic exile as an adolescent. Over the next three
years, Mendieta made seven visits to Cuba, developing strong ties with a
community of emerging artists and immersing herself in the island's rich
Afro-Cuban traditions. She also served as an important conduit of information
between the Cuban and North American art worlds. To this day, Ana Mendieta
remains the only Cuban expatriate from the United States to have participated
fully in Cuban national exhibitions.
While deeply rooted in her personal experience, Mendieta's
art reveals a passionate desire to connect with a wider, collective human
heritage. She sought to unravel the collective layers of individual and
societal history and unmask the latent ethnic, cultural and gender biases
in society, thereby fostering greater self-awareness and comprehension of
the complex diversity of humanity. It is for this reason that her humble
yet prolific production as an artist continues to be relevant today. The
meaning of her work has particular resonance in a global society struggling
to grasp the overwhelming points of correspondence and difference between
individuals, nations and cultures.
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated, 288-page
catalogue co-published by the Hirshhorn and Hatje Cantz Verlag in Ostfildern,
Germany, and distributed by Distributed Art Publishers in New York. The
publication is the most definitive monograph produced to date on the work
of Ana Mendieta and contains biographical, analytical and interpretive essays
by Olga Viso, curator of the exhibition; Chrissie Iles, curator of contemporary
art, Whitney Museum of American Art; art historian Julia Herzberg; and art
critic Guy Brett. Additionally, art historian Laura Roulet contributed an
extensive chronology of the artist's life and career.
"Ana Mendieta: Earth Body, Sculpture and Performance
1972-1985" is made possible by The Henry Luce Foundation; the Latino
Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Center for Latino Initiatives;
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; Bruce T. Halle Family Foundation;
and The Judith Rothschild Foundation. Initial research was supported by
Craig Robins and a Curatorial Research Fellowship from the Getty Grant Program.
Additional support for the exhibition catalog was made possible through
the generosity of Carlos and Rosa de la Cruz and Isabel and Ricardo Ernst.
Following its presentation at the Whitney Museum of American
Art and at the Hirshhorn, the Mendieta exhibition continues its tour at
the Des Moines Art Center (February 25-May 22, 2005) and the Miami Art Museum
(October 2, 2005-January 15, 2006).
Wall text from the exhibition:
- Surveying a period of more than a dozen years, this exhibition traces
the brief yet proliÞc career of Ana Mendieta (19481985) from
her early performance-based works made as a student in the Intermedia Program
at the University of Iowa, where she was grounded in the conceptual and
body-oriented practices of the 1960s and 1970s, to the creation of independent
sculpture and objects in the early 1980s. Rooted in nature and in the body,
Mendieta's art was informed by personal identity and femininity, and distinguished
by its insistent hybridity. Her signature earth-body works known as the
Silueta Series-sculptural interventions on the landscape that inserted
her naked Þgure (or its silhouette or contours) into the natural
landscape-fused aspects of Conceptual, process, performance, body, feminist,
and land art. While contributing signiÞcantly to these varied approaches
to artmaking of the 1970s, her work does not Þt neatly into any one
of them.
-
- Embracing the aims of feminism, Mendieta quietly subverted the monumental
gestures of land art by working at a human scale in the landscape. Critical
of the frequent exclusion of artists of diverse races and ethnicities from
the mainstream art world, she vehemently asserted her own transnational
identity, and borrowed freely from a variety of cultural traditions throughout
the world, appropriating symbols and aspects of the ritual practices of
ancient and indigenous cultures of the Americas, Africa, and Europe in
her art. Throughout her career, Mendieta's cipher-the naked female form
that performs in the studio, merges with the landscape, is etched on a
leaf, or is burned into the soil or a tree trunk-remained Þrmly at
the center of her production.
-
- Born in Havana, Cuba, Mendieta and her sister came to the United States
without their parents when the artist was twelve years old. Her personal
and professional development was greatly informed by the painful experience
of exile, as well as by the intersection of Caribbean and North American
cultures. While deeply rooted in her personal experience, Mendieta's art
reveals a passionate desire to connect with a wider, collective human heritage.
Exhibition Checklist:
NOTE TO THE READER
-
- Titling
-
- Many of Ana's Mendieta's artworks, particularly those created at the
beginning of her career as a student at the Intermedia program at the University
of Iowa, remain "untitled," as the artist did not resolve the
majority for public presentation or publication. In many cases, descriptive
titles have been included in parentheses as secondary notations. These
are drawn from viable sources, including the artist's slide boxes, labels
on film reels, or the artist's own statements or writings.
-
- Titled works below reflect clear notations by the artist on artworks,
lifetime publications, or other materials located in the Ana Mendieta Archives
housed at Galerie Lelong, New York.
-
- Translations for foreign language titles have been provided.
-
- Lifetime vs. Estate Prints
-
- Photographs produced during the artist's career, including those printed
from original 35 mm slides, are identified as "lifetime" photographs.
Works that were printed after her death, including revelatory student works
and replacements for damaged originals, are "estate prints" and
include the dates of reprinting.
-
- Many of the artist's most well-known photographs from the Silueta Series
are posthumous estate prints from portfolios made from the artist's original
35 mm slides in 1991. While there is documentary evidence that several
of these works may have been printed during the artist's life, their locations
remain unknown at this printing.
-
- Multimedia Works
-
- Works identified as 35 mm color slide sequences were projected on the
wall in the final exhibition to reveal the time-based nature of Mendieta's
art. This was a format for presentation Mendieta used in presentations
to colleagues, a few exhibitions, and lecture audiences. The slides, as
well as works produced in Super-8 film and video, have been transferred
to DVD for ease of presentation in this exhibition.
-
- Archival Materials
-
- Several photographs from Mendieta's archive and objects she used as
props or tools to execute Siluetas are also included in the checklist.
-
-
- Bird Transformation, 1972
- Lifetime color photograph
- 10 x 8 in (25.4 x 20.3 cm)
- Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut
- Contemporary Art Purchase Fund
- (Whitney and Hirshhorn only)
-
-
- Bird Transformation, 1972
- Lifetime color photograph
- 10 x 8 in (25.4 x 20.3 cm)
- Private Collection, New York
-
-
- Untitled (Death of a Chicken), 1972
- Color photograph (estate print 2004)
- 20 x 13 1/4 in (50.8 x 33.7 cm)
- Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, courtesy Galerie Lelong, New York
-
-
- Untitled (Facial Cosmetic Variations), 1972
- Color photographs (estate prints 1997/2004)
- 20 x 13 1/4 in (50.8 x 33.7 cm) each
- Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, courtesy Galerie Lelong, New York
-
-
- Untitled (Facial Hair Transplants), 1972
- Color photographs (estate prints 1997)
- 13 1/14 x 20 in (33.7 x 50.8 cm) and 20 x 13 1/4 in (50.8 x 33.7 cm)
- Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, courtesy Galerie Lelong, New York
-
-
- Untitled (Grass on Woman), 1972
- Lifetime color photograph
- 8 x 10 in (20.3 x 25.4 cm)
- Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution,
- Washington, D.C., Gift of Raquelín Mendieta Family Trust in
honor of
- Olga Viso, 2003 03.27
-
-
- Ana Mendieta
- Untitled (Dainzú), 1973
- Lifetime black and white photograph
- 8 x 10 in. (20.3 x 25.4 cm)
- Collection Hans Breder
-
-
- Imagen de Yagul (Image from Yagul), 1973
- Lifetime color photograph
- 20 x 13 1/4 in (50.8 x 33.7 cm)
- Collection Hans Breder
-
-
- Sweating Blood, 1973
- Super-8 color, silent film transferred to DVD
- 2 minutes 42 seconds
- Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, courtesy Galerie Lelong, New York
-
-
- Untitled, 1973
- Lifetime color photograph
- 9 1/4 in x 7 1/4 (23.5 x 18.4 cm)
- Collection Hans Breder
-
-
- Untitled (People Looking at Blood on Moffitt Street), 1973
- 35 mm color slides with light-box
- Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, courtesy Galerie Lelong, New York
-
-
- Untitled (Rape Scene), 1973
- Lifetime color photograph
- 10 x 8 in (25.4 x 20.3 cm)
- Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, courtesy Galerie Lelong, New York
-
-
- Untitled (Self-Portrait with Blood), 1973
- Lifetime color photograph
- 10 x 8 in (25.4 x 20.3 cm)
- Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, courtesy Galerie Lelong, New York
-
-
- Untitled, c. 1973-1980
- Pencil on paper
- 5 3/4 x 3 5/8 in (14.6 x 9.2 cm)
- Collection Javier and M_nica G. Mora
-
-
- Untitled (Blood and Feathers), 1974
- Lifetime color photograph
- 10 x 8 in (25.4 x 20.3 cm)
- Collection Raquelín Mendieta Family Trust
-
-
- Untitled (Blood and Feathers #2), 1974
- Super-8 color, silent film transferred to DVD
- 3 minutes 2 seconds
- The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, courtesy Galerie Lelong, New
York
-
-
- Untitled (Blood Sign #2/Body Tracks), 1974
- Super-8 color, silent film transferred to DVD
- 1 minute 10 seconds
- Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, courtesy Galerie Lelong, New York
-
-
- Untitled (Body Tracks), 1974
- Lifetime color photographs
- 10 x 8 in (25.4 x 20.3 cm)
- Collection Carlos and Rosa de la Cruz
-
-
- Untitled (Body Tracks), 1974
- Lifetime color photograph
- 10 x 8 in (25.4 x 20.3 cm)
- Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, courtesy Galerie Lelong, New York
-
-
- Untitled (Creek), 1974
- Super-8 color, silent film transferred to DVD
- 3 minutes 30 seconds
- Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection courtesy Galerie Lelong, New York
-
-
- Untitled (Silueta Series, Mexico), 1974
- Color photograph (estate print 1991)
- 20 x 13 1/4 in (50.8 x 33.7 cm)
- Collection Ricardo and Isabel Ernst, Washington, D.C.
-
-
- Álma Silueta en Fuego (Soul Silhouette on Fire),
1975
- Lifetime color photograph
- 10 x 8 in (25.4 x 20.3 cm)
- Collection Dillon Cohen
-
-
- Álma Silueta en Fuego (Soul Silhouette on Fire), 1975
- Super-8 color, silent film transferred to DVD
- 3 minutes 7 seconds
- Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, courtesy Galerie Lelong, New York
-
-
- Corazón de Roca con Sangre (Rock Heart with Blood), 1975
- Super-8 color, silent film transferred to DVD
- 3 minutes 3 seconds
- Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection courtesy Galerie Lelong, New York
-
-
- Silueta de Cenizas (Ash Silhouette), 1975
- Also known as Alma Silueta en Fuego (Soul Silhouete on Fire),
1975
- Lifetime color photograph
- 8 x 10 in (20.3 x 25.4 cm)
- Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, courtesy Galerie Lelong, New York
-
-
- Untitled (Flower Person), 1975
- Lifetime color photograph
- 8 x 10 in (20.3 x 25.4 cm)
- Collection Melva Bucksbaum and Raymond Learsy
-
-
- Untitled (Flower Person), 1975
- Super-8 color, silent film transferred to DVD
- 6 minutes 7 1/2seconds
- Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, courtesy Galerie Lelong, New York
- (Whitney only)
-
-
- Untitled (Genesis Buried in Mud), 1975
- Super-8 color, silent film transferred to DVD
- 4 minutes
- Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, courtesy Galerie Lelong, New York
-
-
- Ánima, Silueta de Cohetes (Soul, Silhouette of Fireworks),
1976
- Super-8 color, silent film transferred to DVD
- 2 minutes 23 seconds
- Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, courtesy Galerie Lelong, New York
-
-
- Armature for Ánima, Silueta de Cohetes (Soul, Silhouette
of Fireworks), 1976
- Wood, string, and extinguished fireworks
- 70 x 35 x 1 in (177.8 x 88.9 x 2.5 cm)
- Collection Raquelín Mendieta Family Trust
-
-
- Ñañigo Burial, 1976
- 47 black ritual candles
- 60 x 40 1/2in (unburned candles are 9 in high)
- (152.4 x 102.9 cm, 22.9 cm high)
- Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, courtesy Galerie Lelong, New York
-
- Untitled (Silueta Series, Mexico), 1976
- Color photograph (estate print 1991)
- 20 x 13 1/4 in (50.8 x 33.7 cm)
- Collection Ricardo and Isabel Ernst, Washington, D.C.
-
-
- Untitled (Silueta Series, Mexico), 1976
- Color photograph (estate print 1991)
- 20 x 13 1/4 in (50.8 x 33.7 cm)
- Collection Ricardo and Isabel Ernst, Washington, D.C.
-
-
- Untitled (Silueta Series, Mexico), 1976
- Color photograph (estate print 1991)
- 20 x 13 1/4 in (50.8 x 33.7 cm)
- Collection Ricardo and Isabel Ernst, Washington, D.C.
-
-
- Untitled (Silueta Series, Mexico), 1976
- Color photograph (estate print 1991)
- 20 x 13 1/4 in (50.8 x 33.7 cm)
- Collection Ricardo and Isabel Ernst, Washington, D.C.
-
-
- Untitled (Silueta Series, Mexico), 1976
- Color photograph (estate print 1991)
- 13 1/4 x 20 in (50.8 x 33.7 cm)
- Collection Ricardo and Isabel Ernst, Washington, D.C.
-
-
- Tree of Life, 1976
- Lifetime color photograph
- 20 x 13 1/4 in (50.8 x 33.7 cm)
- Collection Raquelín Mendieta Family Trust
-
-