the CIA, and her family decided to send her and her sister abroad before anything serious happened. Ana Mendieta and her sister Rachel boarded the plane on September 11, 1961, along with other Cuban children, as part of what was referred to as “Operation Peter Pan” with a one-way ticket to the United States. With monetary support from American corporations, charity from individuals and the Catholic Church, in 1961 thousands of Cubans sent their children to the US, who had decided to grant visas to Cubans who arrived as “students”, a designation that included all Cubans between 6 and 16. The Mendieta sisters were sent to Iowa (when Anna was 12 years old) where they lived in orphanages, youth correctional facilities and foster homes. Mendieta attended the University of Iowa where she graduated as a painter in 1972. Her creative impulses and the new curricula in Multimedia led her into a new form of representation, so her early works between 1972 and 1975 had a feminist approach, portraying challenge and concern for women, violence and the defense of new social structures. This hallmark as a Latina woman and Mendieta’s need to express and defend those at the margins of society, were characteristic of her work up until her death. From 1967, pop art ceased to be at the forefront, and minimalism emerged from the dissatisfaction and disillusionment of American youth in the wake of the Vietnam War, was welcomed and embraced by the institutions in no time. At only 35, one of the movement’s greatest exponents, Carl Andre, had a retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Ana came to New York in 1979, with a $ 3,500 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and moved to a small apartment on Sullivan Street. No one knows how exactly she and Andre met; apparently it may have been during an exhibit in the AIR Gallery that year. They had a relationship of ups and downs, full of a great and stormy passion; they were both complicated people and often disagreed. Devoted to drinking and having heated discussions, they lived in Andre’s apartment, even though she never fully moved in, and continued to rent her own small apartment. In 1983, Ana Mendienta won a scholarship and a residence at the Academy of Rome, where she set up a studio and thought of establishing. Meanwhile, her relationship with Carl cooled off. The better things were going for her, the more lovers she had. In 1984, Carl Andre received the Daad
scholarship in Germany and began frequently visiting Rome, which started up their relationship again. They decided to get married in January 1985, but soon after, Ana discovered that Carl was seeing someone else in Germany. She thought about the possibility of divorce and began to gather evidence to take to court. This is what was going on at the time they returned to New York in September ‘85. According to Mendieta’s sister, she was planning on asking him for the divorce that night. Back to the artist’s tragic outcome, the case inspector couldn’t understand how a woman, who had peaking professional success, was planning to settle in a new city and eagerly preparing her upcoming projects, were prone to suicide. The room where it happened had a great, high window with a radiator beneath; it seemed highly unlikely for someone to accidentally fall out the window. On the other hand, he couldn’t understand how a woman who was afraid of heights (a fear known to all her relatives), would choose to jump to her death, much less from a 34th floor. There was no other way out for Andre than arrest, according to the inspector. At the station, among curators and friends, he got a good lawyer, and was bailed out by Frank Stella, to begin a three-year battle in court. The story made the front page of newspapers 143
and sensationalist magazines and created a state of shock among the art world. It became divided in two sides. Most people judged the sculptor, but many others supported him. Feminist women cooperatives and artists distributed leaflets denying suicide. Later on, radical artist group, Guerrilla Girls, defined Andre as the O.J. of art. The trial of Carl Andre was unique, as he chose to be tried without a jury (this is only legal in a few states). He put himself in the hands of one person, the judge. There were suspicions and conjectures, but no proof. Anna’s conflictive nature, her love of drink and some other compromising practices that the judge didn’t consider didn’t really present Mendieta as helpless victim. A few days later, on February 11, 1988, the sculptor was declared innocent. After the judge isolated himself to review the case, he reappeared and said: “I have concluded that the evidence doesn’t convince me, beyond my reasonable doubts, that the defendant is guilty. Have a nice day.” Andre received the verdict phlegmatically and walked out towards the elevator saying, “Justice has been made.” But while he waited for the elevator, Ana’s mother and sister called him a murderer. How to be sure of what happened that night? Accident? Suicide? Murder? The sculptor still lives in the same apartment on 300 Mercer Street. — Bibliography Mireia Sentis, Full Throttle Game, Ardora Ediciones, Madrid, 1994, p.58-71 Robert Katz, The Fatal Marriage of Carl Andre and Ana Mendieta, The Atlantic Monthly Press, NY, 1990, pp.428. New York Magazine, December 16, 1985. The New York Times, February 12, 1988.