Unseen Mendieta: The Unpublished Works of Ana Mendieta by Olga Viso

Among the most compelling and iconic images of art in the 1970s are the pioneering investigations of performance and experimental media by Ana Mendieta (1948–1985). Mendieta broke taboos and exploded the boundaries of fine art at every turn of her short career. Despite major survey exhibitions by museums in the United States, Europe, and Latin America over the last decade, however, a large body of her work remains unknown. An American artist born in Cuba, Mendieta explored her Caribbean roots through the lens of exile in her work. She meticulously documented her ephemeral site-specific artworks, on beaches and in rivers, across flowery fields, and against walls of rock. Here for the first time, Olga Viso, the leading authority on the artist, presents a beautifully curated representative selection of photographs and drawings from the artist's archive, only a small selection of which has been previously published. The volume traces Mendieta's early studies as an art student in Iowa; the