July 13, 2026

"[T]hree large blank sheets of paper had been affixed to a wall. On the floor was a basin filled with a viscous liquid, tempera paint mixed with animal blood...."

"Then Mendieta—an energetic and diminutive woman, just five feet tall, if that—walked in, to the accompaniment of a drumbeat, dressed in a baggy white ensemble. She drenched her hands and arms in the mixture, reached to the top of one piece of paper, then forcefully smeared her limbs down the surface to make two bloody tracks, ending up on her knees on the floor. Mendieta performed this action twice more before absenting herself, leaving the audience to contemplate the visceral imprints she left behind.... It’s impossible to view Mendieta’s output and not think about the physical stamina and cultural daring that she must have had—not only to make art from her exposed body but also to hide herself away and make work that might only ever please or satisfy herself...."

From "Ana Mendieta, the Body Artist/Decades after her death, her bold innovations are finally coming into focus" (The New Yorker).

25 comments:

RNB said...

"It’s impossible to view Mendieta’s output and not think about the physical stamina and cultural daring that she must have had..." I'm not having any problem not-thinking about it or her at all. Who?

Dave Begley said...

It would be really helpful for readers if the New Yorker told us how much money this low talent woman made from her art scam.

Aggie said...

Art is in the eye of the enabler.

Ice Nine said...

I'm thinking a weed-whacker would immensely improve that last "artwork" in the article...

baghdadbob said...

Her "exposed body?" If she had been naked, it might be worth viewing. Otherwise, meh. The most memorable works of art involve nude women.

rehajm said...

It’s impossible for me to view Mendieta’s output and not think about mental illness. So many artists have compulsions about body tissue and fluids. I stopped going to the SoWa shows as I grew weary of the jars of fingernail clippings and other body stuff as artistic media. I went looking for one of those little paintings of DD and Starbucks cups for the breakfast nook but the crunchy socks did me in…

gilbar said...

True Art would make an article that i could/would read to the end..
This Wasn't It

J L Oliver said...

I see what Althouse did there by subtly connect the first and second post.

Narr said...

I prefer Gary Larson's Weiner Dog Art myself.

bagoh20 said...

Just between you and me, this is a scam.
You don't understand what I mean?
Bless your heart.

Known Unknown said...

Some of her works are interesting. The flaming thing in the ground, for example. I have a more open opinion of art than probably most of your commenters. There are some things I find interesting even if they are obtuse and seem meaningless.

Fred Drinkwater said...

Don't be facetious, Jeffrey.

Bill R said...

By coincidence, I just saw "The Big Lebowski" last night. There's an "artist" who get's naked and slides on an overhead crane over a canvas on which she drips various bodily fluids. Seems like the Coen Brothers were fans of Ms. Mendieta.

Big Mike said...

“… her bold innovations are finally coming into focus"

Unless the focus says “junk art by a junk artist who was a junk human being,” they need to keep working the focus knob.

Earnest Prole said...

By coincidence, I just saw "The Big Lebowski" last night. There's an "artist" who get's naked and slides on an overhead crane over a canvas on which she drips various bodily fluids. Seems like the Coen Brothers were fans of Ms. Mendieta.

Althouse discussed that very scene in comments to a 4/28/18 post (hard to link using my phone but easy to find by googling a few of her words in quotes):

“When I saw that movie for the first time, that scene — Maude's naked entrance — was very disturbing to me. I felt excluded from the boy's club the audience seemed to be made from. It really very close to ruined the movie for me. Maybe the filmmakers thought they were making a powerful woman character and this would make women in the audience feel empowered. That emphatically did not happen for me. It was: Here's where they entertain the men and I'm supposed to grit my teeth and bear it. This is what pop culture is like, over and over, and here it is again. The fact that the character proceeded to speak in a haughty, imperious way did not make me feel energized about femaleness in any way. I felt it was more of the same: sex for the boys. I can get a different perspective on it now, but I'm just telling you how it hit me.”

ChrisC said...

"By coincidence, I just saw "The Big Lebowski" last night" . As a Cohen Brothers aficionado, I can tell you for sure that they were making fun of her. Every single thing in that movie is a send up of stupid stuff that they had observed.

pious agnostic said...

"My art has been commended as being strongly vaginal, which bothers some men. The word itself makes some men uncomfortable. Vagina."

ChrisC said...

I have always imagined the Cohen Bros. sitting at a bar and someone orders a White Russian. What the hell is that, one of them asks? It's Kailua, cream and vodka. Wow, that's disgusting. The other one pulls out a little notebooks and writes' "Next movie, use a white russian cocktail somehow"

boatbuilder said...

I never once got the impression that the Julianne Moore character in The Big Lebowski was supposed to be taken seriously as an empowered woman icon. Really? She was (like just about everybody else in the movie, except The Dude, up to and including the Sam Elliot character), an exaggerated cartoon whack-job.

Known Unknown said...

Everyone in BL is a ridiculous character.

Except Donny. He's just out of his element.

Eva Marie said...

She died at 36.
“Ana Mendieta died on September 8, 1985, after falling from her 34th-floor apartment window in Greenwich Village, New York City. The tragic event remains one of the most controversial and polarizing chapters in modern art history.
Just before her fall, neighbors reported hearing a violent, drunken argument between Mendieta and her husband of eight months, the famous minimalist sculptor Carl Andre. Witnesses also heard a woman repeatedly screaming "No".The 911 Call: When Andre called emergency services, he stated that they had a quarrel because he was more publicly exposed than she was, and that she "somehow went out the window".
He was subsequently arrested and charged with second-degree murder.Andre elected for a bench trial (a trial by a judge rather than a jury). His defense team argued that Mendieta committed suicide or fell accidentally. They pointed to the intense and bloody nature of her performance art as "evidence" of suicidal tendencies. Mendieta's peers fiercely rejected this narrative, noting that she was terrified of heights and her career was actively thriving.
Due to a lack of eyewitnesses and conflicting evidence, Carl Andre was acquitted of all charges in 1988.
The verdict deeply fractured the New York art world. For decades, feminist groups and activists have staged protests at exhibitions of Andre's work—frequently chanting or holding signs reading "Where is Ana Mendieta?" to ensure her memory is not erased by the art establishment. Carl Andre lived until January 2024, when he died at age 88.”

Michael Fitzgerald said...

I appreciate Althouse periodically exposing us to the hijinks of the performance art world. It's always good for a laugh.

Assistant Village Idiot said...

Does performance art always involve women exposing their bodies?

Narr said...

"Does performance art always involve women exposing their bodies?"

That's often the best part. (I have not seen the art of the lady in question, or her parts, so she may be an exception.)

Nancy Reyes said...

I am always reminded of what we learned in our psychiatry rotation in medical school: the taxi driver's rule.
If a normal taxidriver would say the story or behavior was crazy, then maybe the person had a mental illness.
Sigh. Maybe if someone had recognized this and intervened she might not have committed suicide or (alternative story) Stay in an abusive relationship.

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