Untitled (Cosmetic Facial Variations), Jan/Feb 1972, is a Suite of three-color photos documenting Mendieta with shampoo and hair, while she was studying at the University of Iowa. This artwork belongs to a unique hybrid of form and documentation series she performed playing with her own naked body and image. The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection has cataloged and digitized all Mendieta’s moving image works, revealing the artist remarkably created more than 100 films in the ten-year period she worked in the medium before she drastically passed away.

Spanning performance, sculpture, film, and drawing, Ana Mendieta’s work revolves around the

body, nature, and the spiritual connections between them. A Cuban exile, Mendieta moved to the United States in 1961, leaving much of her family behind—a traumatic cultural separation that had a huge impact on her art. Her earliest performances, made while studying, involved manipulations to her body, often in violent contexts.

By fusing her interests in Afro-Cuban ritual and the pantheistic Santería religion with contemporary practices such as earthworks, body art, and performance art, she maintained ties with her Cuban heritage.