Brione Lockett

Both Ana Mendieta and Andy Warhol were very influential artists and both were influenced by their personal experiences. Mendieta was a sculptor, painter and best known for her "earth-like" and natural work. A common theme in Mendieta's work was death, life, violence and feminism. Mendieta often used herself and her own body as subjects in her work, making her work another level of personal. She is known for performance art but worked with photography, film, and painting. Some of her most recognized work is her Silhouette series, which shows self portraits of her silhouette and  paintings or carvings of silhouettes. Many of her pieces focuses on the female body but in a unique way. She displays herself and work to not adhere to typical society beauty standards but instead empowering herself through the realism of human nature. Ana Mendieta uses her childhood growing up in Cuba around nature with the beach near her family’s home as well as her experiences of being sent away to America and being from her home country and family members as a big inspiration for her works and views nature as a part of herself. 

This influences her to use a lot of natural objects such as sand, dirt, water, fire and blood for her works. Some of her works have stayed in caves while others won’t last long in an area in which she then captures her works to make sure they last.  Joanne Finkelstein says “The body is the first visible sign we use to make judgments of one another. Its size and shape, smell and feel are instructive”. One theme that Ana Mendieta deployed is “Earth body art” in her artwork. Mendieta was showing the truth of rape and sexual assault in her work and her silent yet bold painting exhibits and performances she did in class. One specific piece of art is when she uses her arms to spread blood all over a white canvas. In a way her art portrayed the ideas that she was going through but also allowed for her to let out her emotions by portraying them in her unique natural style of artwork.

Andy Warhol was a lonely child and his family was not very wealthy.  As a child he was diagnosed with multiple health disorders. Warhol had to drop out of school and be homeschooled due to his health disorders. He was also made fun of as a kid for being quite different. Both Mendieta and Warhol were alienated at a young age due to their unique characteristics. Warhol was known for screen printing and Mendieta was known for performance art. Both of these artists are communicating a message about the present, what themes they choose to dive into that signifies their work. Warhol was very unique in his art form. He began to paint with many fluorescent colors and screen-print on top of his artwork. He was also a huge fan of movies which was highly incorporated in his work. His mother bought him a camera at the age of nine and he eventually took up photography as well. It’s said he would develop film in a makeshift darkroom he set up in their basement”.  Around this time is where Warhol’s love of art grew. He even took his experiences with his family going to church regularly which resulted on the influence on the way he chose to showcase colors. Warhol’s ideas of his work is mainly what society idolizes. For example, how society views everyday objects like soup or cereal, or the idolization and illusion of celebrity figures’ lives like Marilyn Monroe.

They both created work that made the viewers think deeply of them and out of society's norm. They also differentiated in what they use to make art.  Ana used materials such as nature and other nature made objects to create her artwork. Such as leaves, blood, rocks, herself, more. While Warhol did use more man made objects where he would create his pop art paintings in his studio. In the book, Ways of Seeing, author John Berger describes art as, "the new language" and "Within it we can begin to define our experiences more precisely in areas where words are inadequate". The art that is created tells what the artist have been through and what they both were currently going through. Society definitely played a role in how their artwork turned out and how it ended up becoming. 

Finkelstein, Joanne. The Art of Self Invention: Image and Identity in Popular Visual Culture. Tauris, 2007.

Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. British Broadcasting Corporation, 2008

https://awarewomenartists.com/en/artiste/ana-mendieta/

Brown, Emily. “Andy Warhol And His Artistic Influence.” Culture Trip, The Culture Trip, 6 Sept. 2016, theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/articles/andy-warhol-and-his-artistic-influence/.