ANA MENDIETA:
Earth Body, Sculpture and Performance 1972—85

February 25 — May 22, 2005
Anna K. Meredith Gallery

This comprehensive look at the life and art of Ana Mendieta comes full circle with its presentation at the Art Center. Mendieta, born in Cuba in 1948, moved to Iowa in 1961 through Operation Peter Pan, a program through which Cuban children came to live in the United States. Out of fear of the Cuban government, Cuban parents sent 14,000 children to America. Mendieta settled near Iowa City and later attended the University of Iowa (1969—77), where she participated in an experimental multimedia program that encouraged a merging of theater, dance, music, and the visual arts. The artwork she produced in Iowa led to her critical recognition in the early 1980s. Focusing on the body and/or the body in the natural landscape, this work included sculpture, drawings, performance, and video. At her untimely death in 1985 at the age of 36, Mendieta played a critical yet underrecognized role in the land, body, and feminist art of the 1970s and 80s, which is only now coming into focus. This exhibition will include her lesser-known performance-based works of the early 1970s and continue with the better-known Silueta series, or actions in the landscape, made in Iowa and Mexico between 1973 and 1980. The show will also include the Rupestrian series, landscape interventions made in Cuba in 1981 that are documented in large prints and photographic etchings, as well as documentation of earthworks executed in Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Long Island, Cape Cod, and Canada in the early 1980s. In addition, the exhibition will include video, film, and sequenced slide projections that document her early performance works and time-based actions in nature.

Ana Mendieta: Earth Body, Sculpture and Performance 1972—1985 was organized by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. The exhibition 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 catalogue was made possible through the generosity of Carlos and Rosa de la Cruz and Isabel and Ricardo Ernst.

The Des Moines Art Center’s presentation of Ana Mendieta: Earth Body, Sculpture and Performance 1972—1985 is made possible with support from the Principal Financial Group Foundation, Inc.

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EXHIBITION RELATED PROGRAMS

Exhibition Opening
Thursday, February 24, 6:30 — 8:30 pm

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Gallery Talk
Thursday, March 10, 7 pm

Jeff Fleming, deputy director for programs and curatorial affairs/senior curator, and Hans Breder, Emeritus, F. Wendell Miller Distinguished Professor of Art, School of Art and Art History, University of Iowa

Jeff Fleming and Hans Breder will lead a gallery talk about the work and life of Ana Mendieta. Breder, known for establishing the influential Intermedia Program at the University of Iowa, had a professional and personal relationship with Mendieta throughout the 1970s. Of Breder, exhibition organizer Olga M. Viso writes, "The contribution of Hans Breder cannot be overstated.… In the spring of 2002 he accompanied me to Mexico to retrace his and Mendieta’s frequent summer sojourns there. The insights gained during this research trip and field study were tremendous, for it was in Mexico that the genesis of the "Silueta Series" became evident.

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CONVERSATIONS ON ART:
The Life and Legacy of Ana Mendieta

Sunday, April 10, 1 pm
Levitt Auditorium
Intermission with refreshments
Free admission (intermission with refreshments included)

This important event brings together four people whose lives have been affected by Ana Mendieta in both personal and scholarly ways. Each will deliver a 20-minute talk focused on a particular issue related to the artist.

Olga M. Viso is the deputy director for the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and curator of Ana Mendieta: Earth Body, Sculpture and Performance 1972—1985. Viso also organized and contributed essays to the exhibition catalogue.

Julia P. Herzberg is a Latin American art specialist and independent curator. Her 1998 dissertation, "Ana Mendieta: The Iowa Years. A Critical Study, 1969 through 1977," brought to light critical information about Mendieta’s formative influences and the impact of the Intermedia education she received at the University of Iowa.

Raquelín Mendieta is the artist’s sister, administrator of her estate, and an artist. As teenagers, Raquelín and Ana were brought to Iowa in 1961 as part of Operation Peter Pan, which sent approximately 14,000 Cuban children to the United States without their parents or extended families.

Carolee Schneemann is an artist whom Ana Mendieta knew and admired as an early force in the women’s art movement. Schneemann helped to transform the definition of art, especially discourse on the body, sexuality, and gender.

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Film

Ongoing in Resource Area
Ana Mendieta: Fuego de Tierra, 1987
Nereyda García-Ferraz, director
52 minutes, not rated

This video is a portrait of the life and work of Ana Mendieta. Interview footage with the artist, along with her own filmed records of her earthworks and performances, are incorporated to render a vivid testament to her energy and extraordinary talent.

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