Mendieta - by Helen Molesworth & Pushkin Industries Hardcover

Book Synopsis

Based on the highly acclaimed Death of an Artist podcast, this is the story of the shocking death the art world tried to forget.

On September 8, 1985, rising Cuban-American artist Ana Mendieta fell to her death from the 34th floor of a Greenwich Village apartment she shared with her husband, renowned minimalist sculptor Carl Andre. Was it suicide, accident, or murder? For forty years, the art world has maintained an uneasy silence around this shocking tragedy.

Based on the acclaimed podcast series, Mendieta presents the first comprehensive examination of Mendieta's life, death, and the controversial trial that followed. Ana Mendieta was a groundbreaking artist whose radical earth-body works explored themes of displacement, identity, and violence. Having fled Cuba as a child, she channeled her experiences of exile into powerful performances that merged her body with the landscape, establishing herself as a singular voice in 1970s feminist and conceptual art.

Yet Mendieta's artistic achievements have long been overshadowed by the circumstances of her death and Carl Andre's acquittal in 1988. Drawing on interviews, court transcripts, and archival materials, this book reveals how the art establishment's desire to separate "art from artist" enabled a culture of complicity and silence.

This is both a gripping investigation and a long-overdue reckoning with how the art world failed one of its most promising talents--essential reading for anyone interested in contemporary art, feminist history, or the pursuit of justice where power and privilege intersect with tragedy.

About the Author

Helen Molesworth is a writer, podcaster and curator based in Los Angeles and Provincetown. Her podcasts include Death of an Artist, a six-part podcast about the intertwined fates of Carl Andre and Ana Mendieta and the inaugural season of Recording Artists with The Getty. She is also the host of DIALOGUES, a podcast that features interviews with artists, writers, fashion designers, and filmmakers hosted by the David Zwirner Gallery. SHe's the author of numerous well-received books, catalog essays and articles about art and artists. The recipient of the 2011 Bard Center for Curatorial Studies Award for Curatorial Excellence, in 2021 she received a Guggenheim Fellowship and in 2022 she was awarded The Clark Art Writing Prize.

Pushkin Industries is an audio production company co-founded by Jacob Weisberg and Malcolm Gladwell in 2018. Their talented team is dedicated to producing audio in any format that challenges listeners, encourages their curiosity, and inspires joy.