Ana Mendieta – in pictures

Untitled (Blood and Feathers), 1974 "Cuban-born and American-raised, Ana Mendieta described her work as 'earth-body' art," writes Sean O'Hagan. "From 1971, when she had her first solo show, until her death in 1985, she created a diverse collection of work that included subversive self-portraits that played with notions of beauty, belonging and gender." Photograph: Courtesy Galerie Lelong, New York and Paris and Alison Jacques Gallery, London

Untitled Facial Hair Transplant, Moustache (1972) "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." Photograph: Courtesy Galerie Lelong, New York and Paris and Alison Jacques Gallery, London

Untitled (Grass on Woman), 1972 "She evoked the power of female sexuality as well as the horror of male sexual violence." Photograph: Courtesy Galerie Lelong, New York and Paris and Alison Jacques Gallery, Londo

Tree of Life, 1976 "Friends described Mendieta variously as 'sparky', 'provocative', 'tempestuous', 'outspoken' and 'fiercely ambitious'." Photograph: Whitney Museum of Art

Untitled, 1973 "After her death, many saw, in her often dark and ritualistic art, a foreshadowing of her fate – she once staged a performance in which visitors came upon her prone under a blood-spattered white sheet." Photograph: Courtesy Galerie Lelong, New York and Paris and Alison Jacques Gallery, London

Imagen de Yagul, 1973 "Mendieta's performance pieces evoked the folk and occult traditions of her native Cuba as well as her beloved Mexico." Photograph: Courtesy Galerie Lelong, New York and Paris and Alison Jacques Gallery, London

Mendieta with an untitled wood sculpture, 1984 "It is only now that the power of her art is finally taking precedence over the stereotypes that were thrust upon her and the darkly dramatic manner of her death." Photograph: PR