Ana Mendieta Solo Show

Galleria Raffaella Cortese hosts the second solo show of Cuban-born artist Ana Mendieta.

In a brief yet prolific career Mendieta experimented with various media, from performance to film, from photography to drawing and sculpture. Her artistic practice investigated the close relationship between Art and Nature, which
Mendieta accomplished by merging her physical body or its imprint with the earth. In many performative films in fact, the body becomes the means by which the artist blends with Nature, in a kind of spiritual and visceral ritual that assumes a symbolic value of rebirth. As the artist repeatedly said, ‘culture is the memory of history’ and it is in this sense that the body is not just a witness, but also the vehicle of collective memory.

Awarded the Prix de Rome for sculpture, in 1983 Mendieta moved from New York to Rome, a city in which Mendieta was especially interested for its rich history. During her residency at the American Academy in Rome,
Mendieta moved away from creating works in the landscape and turned to making art objects, such as sculptures and drawings, which still retained the silueta shapes of her earlier works.
The exhibition at Raffaella Cortese focuses on works Mendieta created while in Rome, in particular on ink, watercolour and pencil drawings some of which were studies for sculptures. The exhibition also features the book of lithographs Duetto Pietre Foglie, also realized during her Roman residency, and a precious notebook from 1981 with some preparatory studies.