A Rousing Tate Modern Retrospective Refuses to Reduce Ana Mendieta to a Tragic Figure

In 1980, Ana Mendieta returned to her homeland of Cuba for the first time, having fled as a child refugee in 1961. She would make another six trips between 1980 and 1983, and the works she made during these visits open Tate Modern’s new major retrospective of her work. “Esculturas Repuestras”(1981)is a series of sculptures carved into limestone caves, cliffs, and valleys in La Escaleras de Jaruco, a nature reserve in Cuba. They combine so much of what animated Mendieta’s