Introducing Death of an Artist: The Story of Ana Mendieta and Carl Andre

Coming Sept 23: For more than 35 years, accusations of murder shrouded one of the art world’s most storied couples: Was the famous sculptor Carl Andre involved in the death of his up-and-coming artist wife Ana Mendieta? Host Helen Molesworth revisits Mendieta’s death and the trial that followed, and interrogates both the silence and the protest that have accompanied this story ever since.

To hear the whole season early and ad-free, consider becoming a Pushkin+ subscriber in Apple Podcasts or at pushkin.fm/plus. Death of an Artist is a co-production between Pushkin Industries, Somethin’ Else, and Sony Music Entertainment.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Anna Mendietta and Carl Andre were a textbook example of
opposites attract two artists, a white man from New England
who became famous in the sixties for his minimalist sculptures bricks,
wood or metal placed directly on the floor, and a
Cuban woman who had been forced from her homeland and
discovered avant garde art in the middle of Iowa in

(00:24):
the nineteen seventies. She basically staged what looked like blood
in the doorway of a building, and it was extremely powerful.
I'm Helen Molesworth, an art historian, and I want to
tell you the story of these two people. As artists
and as lovers. They each push the boundaries of art

(00:44):
and change the trajectory of art history. It could have
been a love story, but instead it's a tragedy. Did
she ever sound like she was afraid of him? Yes,
that night he said, yeah, he's going to blow up
if I have this conversation with him. In the early
hours of September eighth, nineteen eighty five, Anna fell from

(01:05):
the thirty fourth floor window of Carl's New York apartment.
Carl was charged with murder, and the art world started
to split into There were those who couldn't believe such
an artistic genius was capable of that kind of violence.
How could Carl who revere then the purity of the desire,
how could he have done such an act like that?

(01:27):
And there were those who blame him for Anna's death,
that us jailed at him, that he was a murderer.
This might have remained a story remembered only by art
world insiders, except in the decades after her death. The
world changed a lot, and while Carl's career has remained strong,
Anna's has had a meteoric rise. So in twenty fourteen,

(01:52):
when Carl Andre was celebrated with a big museum retrospective,
Anna Mendieta's fans showed up in force, and for me,
the question was, could the art world's unofficial rule that

(02:13):
we separate the art from the artist still hold The
work is separate from the individual it has to be.
Could I continue to love both Animandiettas and Carl Andre's work.
It felt like the only way to answer that question
was by asking another what really happened to Anna Mendieta.

(02:37):
This is Death of an Artist Coming September twenty third
from Pushkin Industries, Something Else and Sony Music Entertainment. Listen
and follow wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe to pushkin
Plus and you can hear the whole season early and
add free. Find Pushkin Plus on the Death of an

(02:58):
Artist show page in Apple Podcasts or at pushkin dot fm,
slash plus