Ana Mendieta
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
At the conclusion of “Ana Mendieta: Earth Body, Sculpture and Performance 1972–1985” was a small 1981 drawing in acrylic, Silueta de entrañas (La voladora) (Silhouette of Entrails [The Flyer]). At first glance, the work was far from the most engaging or important in the show; indeed, here it seemed small and insignificant relative to many of Mendieta’s other pieces, especially the massive, tree-trunk-like, untitled wooden sculptures from her “Totem Grove” series of a few years later, featured in an adjacent gallery. But the drawing’s morbid title and jagged-edged figure, limned by a curvilinear