Untitled, from the Silueta series

Ana Mendieta, Untitled, from the Silueta series, 1980, gelatin silver print, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Smithsonian Latino Initiatives Pool and the Smithsonian Institution Collections Acquisition Program, 1995.54.2, © 1980, Estate of Ana Mendieta
Copied Ana Mendieta, Untitled, from the Silueta series, 1980, gelatin silver print, sight 38 3⁄4 x 52 1⁄2 in. (98.4 x 133.4 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Smithsonian Latino Initiatives Pool and the Smithsonian Institution Collections Acquisition Program, 1995.54.2, © 1980, Estate of Ana Mendieta

Artwork Details

Title
Untitled, from the Silueta series
Artist
Date
1980
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
sight 38 3⁄4 x 52 1⁄2 in. (98.4 x 133.4 cm.)
Copyright
© 1980, Estate of Ana Mendieta
Credit Line
Museum purchase through the Smithsonian Latino Initiatives Pool and the Smithsonian Institution Collections Acquisition Program
Mediums Description
gelatin silver print
Classifications
Subjects
  • Landscape — mountain — Mountain of San Felipe
  • Landscape — Mexico — Oaxaca
Object Number
1995.54.2
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1995.54.2

Artwork Description

Mendieta’s Silueta series, produced between 1973 and 1980, explores the connections between nature and the female body. This photograph documents an ephemeral sculpture – in the shape of the artist’s silhouette and loosely evocative of ancient goddess archetypes – carved directly into the earth with minimal disruption of the environment. Mendieta’s Siluetas signify a return to a metaphorical womb and her native Cuban homeland as she molded a feminist subject and land art processes to explore the theme of exile.

Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art, 2013
Description in Spanish

La serie Silueta, de Mendieta, creada entre 1973 y 1980, estudia las conexiones entre la naturaleza y el cuerpo de la mujer. Esta fotografía documenta una escultura efímera —con la forma de la silueta de la artista y vagamente evocadora de los arquetipos de la Diosa Madre— tallada directamente en la tierra con una alteración mínima del entorno. Las Siluetas de Mendieta significan un retorno a una matriz metafórica y a su Cuba natal al mediar un tema feminista con procesos del arte de la tierra para analizar el tema del exilio.

Nuestra América: la presencia latina en el arte estadounidense, 2013

Gallery Label
This photograph documents one of the last of the siluetas, or "silhouettes," Mendieta created on an expedition into the eroded streambeds of Iowa. Her earth art borrowed from Catholicism, Caribbean santeriá, and pre-columbian rituals to make images of healing and eternal life-forces. She etched into the exposed earth a primal figure of a woman, giving a literal truth to the santeriá idea of monte adentro, or "going back to the roots." She chose this spot to suggest an ancient devotional gesture newly revealed by nature's cycles.

Mendieta used wooden effigies, silhouettes cut into the earth, and often her own body half-buried in the soil to forge a unity between herself and the land. She was the daughter of an early supporter of Fidel Castro who had fallen out of favor and been imprisoned. Her family fled Cuba for the United States in 1961, and the siluetas address Mendieta's feelings of loss and exile.

Exhibition Label, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2006

Related Books

OurAmerica_500.jpg
Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art
Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art explores how Latino artists shaped the artistic movements of their day and recalibrated key themes in American art and culture. This beautifully illustrated volume presents the rich and varied contributions of Latino artists in the United States since the mid-twentieth century, when the concept of a collective Latino identity began to emerge. Our America includes works by artists who participated in all the various artistic styles and movements, including abstract expressionism; activist, conceptual, and performance art; and classic American genres such as landscape, portraiture, and scenes of everyday life. 

Exhibitions

Media - 2011.12 - SAAM-2011.12_1 - 77591
Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art
October 25, 2013–March 2, 2014
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art presents the rich and varied contributions of Latino artists in the United States since the mid-twentieth century, when the concept of a collective Latino identity began to emerge.