Art Icons

earth and body

self identity

golden hair 

feminism, aggression, blood, self-identity  

Andy Warhol and Ana Mendieta are very popular artist in the art history. Andy Warhol was born in 1928 in Pennsylvania, he was born to immigrant parents and Ana Mendieta was born in 1948 in Cuba, she was sent to America as part of Peter Pan operation. This is the first similarity in both artist that their native country is not USA. Andy Warhol and Ana Mendieta are so different from each other. Comparing by their work both artists are different from each other, although they both were known as icon of their moment. The one common thing is they both relevant to women at some point and they mainly used woman’s face to shoe their thought powerfully, passion and to attract the people. In, Andy Warhol’s art he was mostly focusing on famous actress or celebrities. Ana Mendieta mostly using her own body and her own face.  Definitely these artists are synonymous with their work.

Ana Mendieta is Cuban- American Performance Artist, Sculptor, Painter, Photographer and video artist; her moments and styles are Feminist Art, Performance Art., Body Art and Land Art. After graduating from high school Mendieta went on to study French and art at the University of Iowa. Although her early work consisted mostly of paintings, a shift would occur when she enrolled in Hans Breeder’s innovative and progressive Inter-media Art course. She wrote: "The turning point in art was in 1972, when I realized that my paintings were not real enough for what I want the image to convey and by real, I mean I wanted my images to have power, to be magic." Her professor turned her on to the newly burgeoning performance art scene and groups such as the Viennese Vacationists. She began to boldly experiment with using her own body and blood as a medium and began incorporating aspects of live ritual from religions like Santeria into her work. Ana Mendieta was influenced by feminism, her most of the art was on woman power, rapped, gender fluidity, cultural marginalization, and domestic violence; she was a very powerful artist, she was also very aggressive and against of sexual violence like her art.

Andy Warhol is an American Painter, Draftsman, Filmmaker, and Print-maker. His moments and styles are Por Art Video Art, Postmodernism. After graduating from high school at the age of 16, in 1945, Warhol attended Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University), where he received formal training in pictorial design. Shortly after graduating, in 1949, he moved to New York City, where he worked as a commercial illustrator. His first project was for Glamour magazine for an article entitled, "Success is a Job in New York." Throughout the 1950s Warhol continued his successful career in commercial illustration, working for several well-known magazines, such as Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and The New York. He also produced advertising and window displays for local New York retailers. Andy Warhol was a prolific figure in the 1960’s. He was a leading artist in the pop art movement. He achieved this status by becoming a successful magazine and ad illustrator. Andy Warhol was influenced by celebrities; his popular arts were on celebrity's painting and he became a celebrity; he was one of the great artists of that moment.

            In both artist’s work they have so many popular themes. For example, Silkscreen, daily useful thing’s paint on the canvas was some prevalent themes of Andy Warhol, Body track and nature earth piece are prevalent theme of Ana Mendieta. The consistent use of blood and other organic material such as feathers, rocks, flowers, and the earth reflect Mendieta's passion for religious ritual. She was especially inspired by the strain of Cuban Catholicism known as Santeria. Ana Mendieta was very influenced by her past. She was sent to USA When she was a mere 12, she was sent to America along as part of the Peter Pan operation from Havana, Cuba. "a dialogue between the landscape and the female body" - a relationship between artist and earth that would come to assuage the pain of her early disconnection from mother and home like a universal womb. Warhol was known to suffer from a nervous disorder that would frequently keep him at home, and, during these long periods, he would listen to the radio and collect pictures of movie stars around his bed. It was this exposure to current events at a young age that he later said shaped his obsession with pop culture and celebrities. In my eyes Andy Warhol influenced by his childhood when was known as weird child.

Both artists were very different, unique and popular at moments. Andy Warhol’s and Ana Mendieta’s lived experience and their self-identities influenced the way they made arts. if looked at deeply enough. For one, both draw artistic inspiration from their biographical background when making their masterpieces.

Andy Warhol was called weird child by his relatives in his childhood, and he was the popular pop artist. He found unique art like on a daily based thing, he found early pop art which is still that much famous now as it was in their time. He had some diseases that’s why he didn’t allow to go out too much and he had celebrities’ photos around him in his room, later he did great job with pop art. Many of his paintings are on the celebrity. On the other hand, Ana Mendieta had to leave her own mother land Cuba. She was concerned with the painful remnants of her cultural displacement from Cuba and would later call the trip a "going back to the source." This would also mark the beginning of Mendieta's commitment to, in her words, carrying out "a dialogue between the landscape and the female body" - a relationship between artist and earth that would come to assuage the pain of her early disconnection from mother and home like a universal womb. Her trip to Cuba also inspired her to a more cultural/natural theme.  She took full body photos of her camouflaging with nature, such as trees and grass.  She also made silhouettes the ground, such as dirt, water, grass, and sand. All of these elements are what define on where she came from, in other words, her homeland.

Andy Warhol world best art theme was silk-screening. This stencil process involved transferring an image on to a porous screen, then applying paint or ink with a rubber squeegee. Also, he used big size of canvases as material of his art. Dollar bill’s several prints, Soup cans, Marilyn’s painting these are some example of his pop art technique. He also used blocks made of plywood for silk-screening as material in one of his gallery exhibitions. Oxidation Painting is part of a series of works that was produced by the artist alone, or with a group of his friends, and made by urinating on a canvas of copper paint that was placed horizontally on the floor and then allowing the result to oxidize. The result was a metallic sheen with a surprising depth of color and texture; a surface reminiscent of works by Abstract Expressionists such as Jackson Pollock. Warhol put much thought and design into these works, and is quoted as saying, "[these paintings] had technique, too”.  On the other hand, Mendieta’s most of the art pieces are based on the earth, nature inspired and feminine. Her great material of art was her own body, blood, nature, fire, rocks, flowers. She was also using video technology for her great art moment for her work.

“[the] body is the first visible sign we use to make judgement of one another. Its size and shape, smell and feel, are instructive” (Finkelstein pg. 96) I personally love this quote, as we see Mendieta’s work her great medium of her art work was her body. She was using her body and blood to show gender fluidity, cultural marginalization, and domestic violence. She was also using her own body with mud in her “earth and body” art theme. “To be born a woman has been to be born, within an allotted and confined space, into the keeping of men.” (Berge pg. 46) “But the essential way of seeing women, the essential use to which their images are put, has not changed.” (Berge pg. 64) “We All have a thousand hands, a thousand feet and will never go alone.”

Works Cited: 

Berger, John. “5.” Ways Of Seeing.Great Britain, Penguin Books, 1972. 98-102

Finkelstein, Joanne. “Chapter Two.” The Art of Self Invention: Image and Identity in Popular Visual Culture New York, New    
      York, I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd, 2007. 93-96

Saltz, Jerry. “Elizabeth Taylor:” Jerry Saltz on Andy Warhol’s Portraits of Liz Taylor - Artnet Magazine, 24 Mar. 2011,
       www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/saltz/andy-warhols-portraits-of-liz3-24-11.asp.

“Ana Mendieta Overview and Analysis.” The Art Story, www.theartstory.org/artist-mendieta-ana.htm.

“Andy Warhol Most Important Art | TheArtStory.” The Art Story, www.theartstory.org/artist-warhol-andy-artworks.htm.

“Andy Warhol's Life.” The Andy Warhol Museum, www.warhol.org/andy-warhols-life/.