Do you believe in love?
We are constantly bombarded by love stories telling us there’s a soulmate out there waiting for us. However, history (or even life itself) has shown life is not as perfect.
Couples like Romeo and Juliet, Rose and Jack, and even Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, only encourage us to think that finding that special someone will fill the void in our lives, but this rarely happens. Just as it happens with many of these stereotyped couples, there are real cases that prove love can be capricious and capable of hurting others. Or even worse, these cases show there was no real love at all. A great example is the “love” story of Ana Mendieta and Carl Andre.
Born in Cuba in 1948, Ana Mendieta became one of the most controversial Latin American artists, not because of her works, but for the controversial way she died. During the sixties, the American government, supported by the Catholic church and a group of Cuban exiles, started a program where Cuban children were taken from La Havana to the United States. Mendieta’s parents were prominent followers of Fulgencio Batista when Fidel Castro came to power. They had to go into hiding and thought the best way to protect their daughters was to send them abroad via the program, Operation Peter Pan. Given the large amounts of children sent to exile, Mendieta and her sister had to spend many years going from orphanage to orphanage in the United States. Both girls endured years of hostility, discrimination, and racism due to their skin color and nationality.
In view of the hardships she had suffered, Ana decided she was going to fashion herself as a “non-white artist,” a statement she would adopt for the rest of her life.
Her art was influenced by her multicultural background. Her experiences in Cuba, the Us, and Mexico would live side by side in her artwork. She would often feel like she belonged to many places and none at the same time. Instead of seeing in a negative light, she channeled her experiences to create her artistic vision.
Years later, she met a man who she thought was the love of her life, Hans Breder. She moved with him to Mexico, where her life changed completely. She abandoned a place where she felt unwelcome and moved to a country that received her with open arms. Mexico provided her with the inspiration she needed to develop her art and find new ways of self expression.
Being unable to return to Cuba due to Kennedy’s restrictions, and unwilling to go back to the US, she decided to settle in Mexico, where she felt comfortable to live as she pleased.
Between 1972 and 1975, she created art pieces dealing with themes like racism and discrimination. She also started to explore feminism in her art as a form of therapy to overcome her difficult upbringing. It wasn’t long before she would become an ardent defender of women’s rights. Using techniques like body paint and materials like soil, water, and flowers, she represented women across different stages of life. She discovered that, unlike her natal country or Neverland, as Operation Peter Pan called the US, in Mexico she was free to speak of injustice through art. She created a series of photos where she pushed her face into an acrylic plaque to show how the face gets distorted when hit.
This was a way for her to speak up against women violence and misogyny.
The cruel and violent way she portrayed these themes allowed her to meet one of the most renowned poets and sculptors of New York, Carl Andre. In his eyes, change could only be achieved through art, and as a true admirer, he introduced her to the artistic community of the city. She valued Andre’s opinions and finally took his advice and moved to the big apple. He told her she could pursue her vision in New York and that her message would be heard across the world. As it happens in any passionate artistic collaboration, both fell in love.
“Carl believes that our relationship is like Diego and Frida’s. Can you think of a person with a bigger ego?”
Madly in love, both artists helped the other with their art and even collaborated as one soul. However, Andre was a very obsessive and controlling; he loved her, but not enough to let her be herself. As so, Mendieta became the woman she had always defended. She became Frida Kahlo on the outside and on the inside the protagonist of a soap opera. Andre’s jealousy and Mendieta’s thirst for freedom was an unhealthy combination that soon turned their relationship toxic. On September 8, 1985, Soho became the setting of one of the darkest crimes in the history of art. After a terrible fight involving physical violence, Ana Mendieta fell from the 34th floor of the building where Andre lived.
The only one who knew what had happened was Carl Andre. As the main suspect of Mendieta’s death, he immediately became the most hated person in the artistic community. However, three years later, the sculptor was freed from all charges and even today he hasn’t explained what happened on that tragic night. There are many rumors surrounding this controversial death, but no one really knows why her life ended this way.
The official reports determined it was a suicide, but people never bought that. Even today Andre is still questioned for Mendieta’s death, especially by feminists who demand to know what happened to one of their most important representatives. One of the most burning questions is why would a talented and healthy 35-year-old woman decide to kill herself? No one will ever know, but according to Andre, before she threw herself out the window, they had been arguing about who was more famous. Many believe he actually pushed her, because prior to the incident neighbors had heard shouting and afterwards they claimed Andre’s face was covered with scratches.
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The art world is full of intense emotions that are often channelled towards creation. Like art, life can be very unpredictable. Read about The 8 Most Tragic Deaths in The Art World.
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Sources:
pikaramagazine.com
latempestad.mx
tribunafeminista.org
art-madrid.com
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Translated by María Isabel Carrasco Cara Chards
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