The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of June 6, 2026

A horizontally oriented gelatin silver print with a thin white border depicts a cross-section of earth. Spindly grass and small bushes grow along the top. Below, dark, craggy soil features a thick root stretching horizontally across the center. Beneath this root, the earth reveals an indentation in a human shape. The bottom third consists of a dense, textured layer of rounded, light-gray stones that merges into the dark, layered soil above.

Untitled (Silueta Series, Iowa)

1980

Ana Mendieta

(American, b. Cuba, 1948–1985)
America
gelatin silver print
Image: 18.2 x 24.3 cm (7 3/16 x 9 9/16 in.); Paper: 20.6 x 25.4 cm (8 1/8 x 10 in.)
Dudley P. Allen Fund 2023.115
© The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, LLC
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

At age 12, Ana Mendieta was sent from Cuba to live in the United States in 1961 after the Communists took control of the island.

Description

“I have been carrying out a dialogue between the landscape and the female body (based on my own silhouette),” wrote Mendieta. “I believe this has been a direct result of my having been torn from my homeland (Cuba) during my adolescence.” Sculpting into the soil at the edge of a slope, Mendieta created a silhouette based on her own body. She then photographed that ephemeral earth work. The photograph is the part of the artwork that remains.
  • {{cite web|title=Untitled (Silueta Series, Iowa)|url=false|author=Ana Mendieta|year=1980|access-date=06 June 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2023.115