The Artist: lead to a murder case

The opening was memorable not for the art within, but the action outside. To enter the exhibition the great and the good of the New York art world had to pass a picket line of about feminist protesters, many of them carrying banners that read: That question was directed at the male-dominated art establishment, which feminists claimed had already forgotten Ana Mendieta, who had died seven years earlier. What incensed the protesters even more was the inclusion in the show of a work by her former partner, the minimalist sculptor Carl Andre.

To them, as well as to Mendieta's family and many of her friends, Andre was responsible for her death. In the early hours of 8 September , Mendieta had — to borrow the words Andre had used when he called the emergency services — "somehow gone out the window" of their 34th floor apartment on Manhattan's Mercer Street. Both had been drinking heavily. Andre later claimed to remember nothing of the events leading up to her death and that she may even have committed suicide, but those that knew her well — and knew of her acute fear of heights — thought this unlikely.

Many of them believed he had pushed or even thrown her out of the window during a drunken argument. She had too much going for her at the time, more so than him. Her work was being noticed. And she wasn't depressed.

Ana Mendieta: death of an artist foretold in blood | Art and design | The Guardian

She was up and happy. She hated heights, so she would not have climbed up on the window, which was close to, and just above, the bed in their apartment. My guess is they were fighting and it just happened, this terrible thing. Most of his women friends supported him, but people wanted to blame somebody.

There was a lot of division in the New York art world over her death. When the police arrived, they found the couple's bedroom in a mess and Andre with scratch marks on his nose and arms. His initial statements differed from his recorded message to the emergency services. He was arrested and later charged with murder. In court, a doorman testified that he heard a woman screaming "No" several times around 5. After three separate indictments, Andre was acquitted on the grounds that there was insufficient evidence to prove that he had pushed her during a drunken row.

Many of her friends remain unconvinced of his innocence. They cite contradictions in his police interviews, and his decision to be tried by a judge rather than a jury — which meant that the evidence was weighed up without him being cross-examined by the prosecution. Many powerful figures in the New York art world colluded in that. Until recently, the question asked by those feminist protesters might have been amended to "Who is Ana Mendieta? But, as the recent big show of her work at the Whitney Museum in New York and the imminent retrospective at the Hayward gallery in London attests, Mendieta is undergoing a reappraisal as a pioneering artist whose work, as the Hayward's artistic director, Ralph Rugoff, notes "ranged nomadically across practices associated with body art, land art, performance, sculpture, photography and film".

Cuban-born and American-raised, Mendieta described her work as "earth-body" art. From , when she had her first solo show while an MA student at the University of Iowa, until her death, she created a diverse collection of work that included silhouettes of her body created in mud, earth, rocks, wild flowers and leaves, performance pieces that evoked the folk and occult traditions of her native Cuba as well as her beloved Mexico and subversive self-portraits that played with notions of beauty, belonging and gender.

In her performance pieces, where she sometimes used blood "as a very, powerful magical thing", she evoked the power of female sexuality as well as the horror of male sexual violence. In her photographic self-portraits, she pressed her face against glass to distort her features or pictured herself dripping in blood or disguised as a man with glued-on facial hair. Mendieta's art, like her spirit, was fuelled by a restlessness rooted in her exile from Cuba.

Friends described her variously as "sparky", "provocative", "tempestuous", "outspoken" and "fiercely ambitious. Others claimed her as the freest of female free spirits in a male-dominated art world. The curator and scholar Irit Rogoff, her as "essentialised through an association of wild appetites and with unbounded female sexuality.

Mendieta was born in November , the second of three children to Ignacio and Raquel Mendieta, a well-off, upper-middle-class couple. Her father, a supporter of Fidel Castro, was made an assistant in the post-revolutionary ministry of state in but, disillusioned with the anti-Catholicism of the new Cuba, later became involved in organising counter-revolutionary activities.

Ana Mendieta: death of an artist foretold in blood

As did his two daughters, Ana and Raquelin, aged 12 and Fearing for their safety, he arranged for their passage to America, in through Operation Pedro Pan, a scheme organised by a priest in Miami that allowed around 14, children to leave the country and enter the US under the guardianship of the Catholic church.

Her euphoria was short-lived. After a time in which they were given over to the care of an Iowa reform school, where beatings and confinement were common punishments for the slightest misdemeanour, the sisters were separated and spent several years being shunted from one foster home to another.

Ana felt abandoned by her family and isolated from her homeland. She did not see her mother and brother again until , or her father, who was jailed for disloyalty to Castro, until He died soon after arriving in America. She would talk about it sometimes when she'd had a few drinks. He co-wrote the Ben E. King Top 10 hit " Spanish Harlem " with Jerry Leiber and also worked as a session musician, most notably playing the guitar solo on the Drifters ' song " On Broadway ". Returning to Hollywood, Spector agreed to produce one of Lester Sill's acts. In late , Spector formed a new record company with Lester Sill, who by this time had ended his business partnership with Hazlewood.

Philles Records combined the names of its two founders. Through Hill and Range Publishers, Spector found three groups he wanted to produce: The first two signed with other companies, but Spector managed to secure the Crystals for his new label. Their next release, "Uptown", made it to number Spector continued to work freelance with other artists. It was while working at Liberty that he heard a song written by Gene Pitney , for whom he had produced a number 41 hit, "Every Breath I Take", a year earlier.

The record was released on Philles, attributed to the Crystals, and quickly rose to the top of the charts.

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By the time "He's a Rebel" went to number 1, Lester Sill was out of the company, and Spector had Philles all to himself. He created a new act, Bob B. Spector also released solo material by Darlene Love in In the same year, he released " Be My Baby " by the Ronettes , which went to number 2. The first time Spector put the same amount of effort into an LP as he did into 45s was when he utilized the full Philles roster and the Wrecking Crew to make what he felt would become a hit for the Christmas season.

Also on the bill were the Righteous Brothers. Spector, who was conducting the band for all the acts, was so impressed with Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield that he bought their contract from Moonglow Records and signed them to Philles. Three more major hits with the duo followed: Despite having hits, he lost interest in producing the Righteous Brothers and sold their contract and all their master recordings to Verve Records.

However, the sound of the Righteous Brothers' singles was so distinctive that the act chose to replicate it after leaving Spector, notching a second number 1 hit in with the Bill Medley—produced " You're My Soul and Inspiration". The recording of " Unchained Melody ", credited on some releases as a Spector production although Medley has consistently said he produced it originally as an album track, [29] had a second wave of popularity 25 years after its initial release, when it was featured prominently in the hit movie Ghost. A re-release of the single re-charted on the Billboard Hot , and went to number one on the Adult Contemporary charts.

This also put Spector back on the U. Top 40 charts for the first time since his last appearance in with John Lennon 's " Imagine ", though he did have UK top 40 hits in the interim with the Ramones. Spector's final signing to Philles was the husband-and-wife team of Ike and Tina Turner in Spector considered their recording of River Deep — Mountain High his best work, [30] but it failed to go any higher than number 88 in the United States. The single, which actually featured Tina but not Ike, was more successful in Britain , reaching number 3.

Spector subsequently lost enthusiasm for his label and the recording industry. Already something of a recluse , he withdrew temporarily from the public eye, marrying Veronica "Ronnie" Bennett , lead singer of the Ronettes, in In , Spector emerged briefly for a cameo as himself in an episode of I Dream of Jeannie and as a drug dealer in the film Easy Rider While producing John Lennon 's hit solo single " Instant Karma! He went to work, using many of his production techniques, making significant changes to the arrangements and sound of some songs.

Spector's overdubbing of "The Long and Winding Road" infuriated its composer, Paul McCartney , especially since the work was allegedly completed without his knowledge and without any opportunity for him to assess the results. Naked , which stripped the songs of Spector's input. For Harrison's multiplatinum album All Things Must Pass number 1, , Spector provided a cathedral-like sonic ambience, complete with ornate orchestrations and gospel-like choirs. The LP yielded two major hits: He held the post for only a year, but during that time he co-produced the single " Power to the People " with John Lennon number 11 , as well as Lennon's chart-topping album, Imagine.

The album's title track hit number 3. The album later won the "Album of the Year" award at the Grammys. Despite being recorded live, Spector used up to 44 microphones simultaneously to create his trademark Wall of Sound. Similar to the unusual pattern of success that Spector's A Christmas Gift for You from Philles Records experienced, "Happy Xmas War Is Over " also stalled in sales upon its initial release, only later to become a fixture on radio station playlists around Christmas.

In , Spector participated in the recording sessions for what would be Lennon's Rock 'n' Roll album number 6. As the s progressed, Spector became increasingly reclusive. The most probable and significant reason for his withdrawal, as revealed by biographer Dave Thompson, [ citation needed ] was that in he was seriously injured when he was thrown through the windshield of his car in a crash in Hollywood.

According to a contemporary report published in the New Musical Express , [ citation needed ] Spector was almost killed, and it was only because the attending police officer detected a faint pulse that Spector was not declared dead at the scene. He was admitted to the UCLA Medical Center on the night of March 31, , suffering serious head injuries that required several hours of surgery, with over stitches to his face and more than to the back of his head.

The accident took place shortly after he had established the Warner-Spector label with Warner Bros. A similar relationship with Britain's Polydor Records led to the formation of the Phil Spector International label in When the Cher and Keno singles the latter's recordings were only issued in Germany foundered on the charts, Spector released Dion DiMucci 's Born to Be with You to little commercial fanfare in ; largely produced and recorded by Spector in , it was subsequently disowned by the singer before enjoying a resurgence among the indie rock cognoscenti of the late s and early s.

Finally, he released an American compilation of his Philles recordings in , which put most of the better-known Spector hits back into circulation after many years. Spector began to reemerge in the late s, producing and co-writing a controversial album by Leonard Cohen , entitled Death of a Ladies' Man. This angered many devout Cohen fans who preferred his stark acoustic sound to the orchestral and choral wall of sound that the album contains.

The recording was fraught with difficulty. After Cohen had laid down practice vocal tracks, Spector mixed the album in studio sessions, rather than allowing Cohen to take a role in the mixing, as Cohen had previously done. Spector also produced the much-publicized Ramones album End of the Century in As with his work with Leonard Cohen, End of the Century received criticism from Ramones fans who were angered over its radio-friendly sound. For the harder stuff, it didn't work as well.

Rumors circulated for years that Spector had threatened members of the Ramones with a gun during the sessions. Dee Dee Ramone claimed that Spector once pulled a gun on him when he tried to leave a session. He never held us hostage. We could have left at any time". Spector remained inactive throughout most of the s, s, and early s. He was originally supposed to produce the entire album, but was fired owing to personal and creative differences.

One of the two Spector-produced songs on the album, the title track , was a UK top 10 single the other single being "White Dove". Spector produced singer-songwriter Hargo 's track "Crying for John Lennon", which originally appears on Hargo's album In Your Eyes , [44] but on a visit to Spector's mansion for an interview for the John Lennon tribute movie Strawberry Fields , Hargo played Spector the song and asked him to produce it.

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Spector and former Paul McCartney drummer Graham Ward produced it in the classic Wall of Sound style on nights after his first murder trial. As a result, Spector was given a songwriting credit on the single. The sections from "Be My Baby" are sung by Winehouse, not directly sampled from the mono single.

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Also in December , Spector attended the funeral of Ike Turner. In his eulogy, Spector criticized Tina Turner's autobiography as a "badly written" book that "demonizied and vilified Ike" and Oprah Winfrey for promoting the book. Spector commented that "Ike made Tina the jewel she was. When I went to see Ike play at the Cinegrill in the 90s The Agony and the Ecstasy , by Vikram Jayanti. It consists of Spector's first screen interview—breaking a long period of media silence. During the conversation, images from the murder court case are juxtaposed with live appearances of his tracks on television programs from the s and s, along with subtitles giving critical interpretation of some of his song production values.

While he does not directly try to clear his name, the court case proceedings shown try to give further explanation of the facts surrounding the murder charges leveled against him. He also speaks about the musical instincts that led him to create some of his most enduring hit records, from "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" to "River Deep, Mountain High", as well as Let It Be , along with criticisms he feels he has had to deal with throughout his life.

Her body was found slumped in a chair with a single gunshot wound to her mouth with broken teeth scattered over the carpet. The retrial of Spector for murder in the second degree began on October 20, , [57] with Judge Fidler again presiding; this time it was not televised.

Spector was once again represented by attorney Jennifer Lee Barringer.



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Spector's early musical influences included Latin music in general, and Latin percussion in particular. Spector would visit Spanish Harlem clubs and schools to hone his listening and practical skills. Spector's trademark during his recording career was the so-called Wall of Sound , a production technique yielding a dense, layered effect that reproduced well on AM radio and jukeboxes.

To attain this signature sound, Spector gathered large groups of musicians playing some instruments not generally used for ensemble playing, such as electric and acoustic guitars playing orchestrated parts—often doubling and tripling many instruments playing in unison —for a fuller sound.

While Spector directed the overall sound of his recordings, he took a relatively hands-off approach to working with the musicians themselves [ citation needed ] usually a core group that became known as the Wrecking Crew , including session players such as Hal Blaine , Larry Knechtel , Steve Douglas , Carol Kaye , Roy Caton , Glen Campbell , and Leon Russell , delegating arrangement duties to Jack Nitzsche and having Sonny Bono oversee the performances, viewing these two as his "lieutenants".

He often worked with the songwriters, receiving co-credit and publishing royalties for compositions. Despite the trend towards multichannel recording, Spector was vehemently opposed to stereo releases, claiming that it took control of the record's sound away from the producer in favor of the listener. But in the final product the background sometimes could not be distinguished as either horns or strings. Spector also greatly preferred singles to albums, describing LPs as "two hits and ten pieces of junk", reflecting both his commercial methods and those of many other producers at the time.

Spector is often called the first auteur among musical artists [64] [7] for acting not only as a producer, but also the creative director, writing or choosing the material, supervising the arrangements, conducting the vocalists and session musicians , and masterminding all phases of the recording process. His influence has been claimed by contemporary performers such as the Beatles , the Beach Boys , [70] and the Velvet Underground [71] alongside latter-day record producers such as Brian Eno and Tony Visconti.

Shoegazing , a British musical movement in the late s to mids, was heavily influenced by the Wall of Sound. Many have tried to emulate Spector's methods, and Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys—a fellow adherent of mono recording—considered Spector his main competition as a studio artist. In the s, Wilson thought of Spector as "…the single most influential producer.

He makes a milestone whenever he goes into the studio. Johnny Franz 's mids productions for Dusty Springfield and the Walker Brothers also employed a layered, symphonic "Wall of Sound" arrangement-and-recording style, heavily influenced by the Spector sound. Sonny Bono , a former associate of Spector's, developed a jangly, guitar-laden variation on the Spector sound, which is heard mainly in mids productions for his then-wife Cher , notably " Bang Bang My Baby Shot Me Down ".

But the Little Girls Understand album. Spector's influence is also felt in other areas of the world, especially Japan. City pop musicians Eiichi Ohtaki and Tatsuro Yamashita have both had numerous hit records heavily influenced by Spector and the Wall of Sound. Titular Shibuya-kei group Pizzicato Five also exuded the Wall of Sound in their early albums and singles. Spector is one of a handful of producers to have number one records in three consecutive decades s, s and s. Others in this group include Quincy Jones s, s and s , George Martin s, s, s, and s , Michael Omartian s, s and s , and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis s, s, and s.

Spector's first marriage was to Annette Merar, lead vocalist of the Spectors Three, a s pop trio formed and produced by Spector.