Silhouettes burned, etched and carved: Ana Mendieta at Tate Modern
Srishti Ojha, StirWorld
September 2026
“My work is basically in the tradition of a Neolithic art,” said Ana Mendieta, the Cuban-born American artist who turned landscapes into canvases for dramatic, organic land art that celebrated the female form and Santería spirituality (a religion of Yoruba African origin that developed in Cuba in the 19th century). The multidisciplinary artist (1948 – 1985) was active in the 1970s and ‘80s, when she created iconic works such as her Silueta series (1973 – 80). Using elemental materials like soil, water and fire, as well as flowers, rocks and gunpowder, she left her imprint on the caves, beaches and grasses of the Americas and Europe and the annals of art history. Her work was heavily influenced by her exile from Cuba at age 12, following the country’s civil war, and deals with themes of gender, the female body, identity, Earth, violence and the trauma of separation. […]