The 5-foot-tall Mehta painting, "Mahisasura, " inspired by a 5th-century Hindu myth, was at once violent and sexual, divine and mortal, vividly depicting an orange-and-black warrior goddess wrapping a red-and-gray buffalo demon in her lethal embrace.

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But later, after meeting drummer Max Roach and becoming immersed in the struggles of black people around the world, she earned a reputation for being a warrior.

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