Ana Mendieta, Untitled, 1981/2019. Color photograph; 29.13 x 21.88 x 1.25 in.  Edition 2 of 10 with 3 AP. Denver Art Museum: Funds from Cathey M. and Richard Finlon, and by exchange, from Kimiko and John Powers, 2021.395. © The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, LLC. Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co., New York. Licensed by the Artist Rights Society (ARS), NY

Ana Mendieta is considered one of the most significant contemporary artists from Latin America. She was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1948 and was sent to the United States by her parents in the 1961 Operation Peter Pan, one of many waves of migrants fleeing Fidel Castro’s government. After spending time in refugee camps, Mendieta settled in foster homes in Iowa. Although primarily trained as a painter at the University of Iowa, Mendieta became a performance artist and a sculptor, a photographer, a filmmaker, a theorist and a feminist who used her body as medium to connect with the universe.

Mendieta is mainly known for her Silueta Series (1973–81), or what she referred to as “earth-body” works. The series is comprised by a group of performances, drawings, photographs, and films in which Mendieta placed her naked body or silhouette into different landscapes, addressing issues of gender, violence, race, identity, and nostalgia for her homeland. This photograph is considered to be part of the Sillueta Series.