Author Archives: Linnea

Ana Mendieta’s Silueta Series

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The Art Institute’s room of Ana Mendieta works in the Contemporary section were striking (plus, how fantastic that they organize the rooms by artist). Mostly showing the Silueta Series, the performances and the images taken of them show the contours of the artist’s body against the earth in different settings. Often, this image is created with organic material although the artist frequently uses her own body in her work, like in this Untitled (Grass on Woman) from 1972:


Called earth-body art in a hybrid of two 1960s art movements, Mendieta used her body or a female outline in her performances. The show her interjecting the female form into nature, often evoking a sense of ancestral and prototypical female goddess worship.

More information about the artist’s background and untimely death.

Cy Twombly’s Sculptures (Cont.), at MoMA

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Installation View

Continuing from the small exhibition of Twombly sculptures at the Art Insitute, MoMA has dedicated a small space to showing the late artist’s sculptures as well, which (joy!) I saw over the weekend. Perhaps simply in relief to the garishly colorful, incredibly large deKooning exhibition, looking at these seven white constructions felt like an oasis of calm.

Untitled (Jupiter Island), 1992. Wood, plaster, plastic leaves, wire, cloth, sand, and paint.

I’m not sure how clear it is in these photos, but the white stood out beautifully from the blue night outside the window. The roughness of the bottom contrasts with the smooth vertical white shape with its unexpected dip at the top.

Untitled (Funerary Box for a Lime Green Python). 1954. Wood, palm leaf fans, house paint, cloth, and wire.

The delicacy of the fans make this my favorite of these works. It’s the earliest sculpture shown, and the fanciful description he gives the title disappears in most of his later works.

Untitled (Lexington), 2005. Plaster, paint, wood, cardboard, metal, paper, cloth, twine, and pencil

Although I say they are white, in his later works Twombly began adding a dash of bright color. Here the very tip is a bright pink. I love the balancing act implied by the varying degrees of narrowness of the different objects.

Untitled (Lexington) from a different angle.