Ana Mendieta: La tierra habla

Catalogue accompanying the exhibition "Ana Mendieta: La tierra habla (The Earth Speaks)" at Galerie Lelong & Co., New York (October 24 - November 16, 2020); Deeply affected by her exile from Cuba to the United States at just 12 years old, Mendieta made several highly anticipated returns to Cuba two decades later. "La tierra habla" presents works that Mendieta created during her trips back to the island nation in the early 1980s, as the first exiled artist officially recognized by the Cuban Ministry of Culture to practice within its borders. "La tierra habla" follows Mendieta’s journey to three different sites in Cuba: Jaruco, Varadero, and Guanabo. Following the completion of her now well-known Silueta Series (1973–80), the artist’s works in Cuba demonstrate an evolving, more sculpturally-inclined practice as well as her increasing comfort with working on a grander scale. It was in and around the famous caves of Jaruco State Park that Mendieta completed one of her most important cycle of works, Esculturas Rupestres (Rupestrian Sculptures). Several individual sculptures, carved directly on the limestone walls, are named after female characters from Cuban legends and myths as well as the names of zemis, or Taíno spirits, such as Bacayu for “Light of Day” or Atabey for “Mother of the Waters.” Galerie Lelong & Co. is proud to publish the first-ever volume to reproduce this particular body of work in full, in addition to introducing new scholarship and discourse to an overlooked aspect of the artist’s practice.