Posted on Nov 17, 2021 at 7:43 amUpdated Nov 17, 2021, 7:44 AM
Rare paintings by the Mexican Frida Kahlo and the French Pierre Soulages broke the records of these artists at auction at Sotheby’s in New York. They were sold, Tuesday evening, 34.9 million and 20.2 million dollars.
As expected, Frida Kahlo’s self-portrait, “Diego y yo” (“Diego and me”, 1949), one of those in which the face of her husband Diego Rivera appears on his forehead, shattered the old record. This dated back to 2016 and amounted to $ 8 million. Sotheby’s announced that the work has been acquired by the “Eduardo F. Costantini Collection”, an Argentinian entrepreneur and collector, also founder of the Museum of Latin American Arts (Malba) in Buenos Aires.
Record for a Latin American work
“Diego y yo” also becomes the most expensive Latin American work of art in history sold at auction. The previous record belonging to a painting by… Diego Rivera, “Los Rivales” (1931), sold for $ 9.76 million by Christie’s in 2018.
Oil on Masonite is emblematic of the self-portraits with an intense and enigmatic gaze that made the fame of the Mexican painter, icon of feminism, who died in 1954 at the age of 47. But on “Diego y yo”, Diego Rivera’s face appears on Frida’s forehead, above her black eyes, from which some tears seem to escape. Diego Rivera, who was at the time close to the Mexican actress Maria Felix, is represented with a third eye, a sign of the torments he causes to his wife.
Breathtaking battle for Soulages
The evening was also animated by a painting by Pierre Soulages. He had spent more than 30 years in a private collection. It corresponds to the red period of the century-old French artist, who became famous for his excellence in mastering black. Painted on August 4, 1961, its material effects were obtained using the scraping technique, which reveals the red hues under the black, explains Sotheby’s.
Estimated at between $ 8 million and $ 12 million, it sold for $ 20.2 million after a heated battle between several buyers in the auction room and on the phone. It greatly exceeds the previous record, reached in 2019 in Paris, with 9.6 million euros.
Demand remained vigorous
Another highlight of the evening was the sale of a painting by impressionist Claude Monet, “Coin du bassin aux nymphéas” (1918), for $ 50.8 million. An amount far, however, from its all-time high of $ 110.7 million reached in 2019, still in New York.
After several mixed seasons due to the pandemic, New York’s fall 2021 sales results are looking positive. The auction houses claim to have found a sufficient supply to meet the demand which remained vigorous.
On Monday, Sotheby’s broke its all-time record for a single auction evening, selling 35 works from the highly regarded auction house for $ 676 million. Macklowe modern and contemporary art collection . For its part, Christie’s announced that it made $ 1.1 billion last week, against 691 million for these spring sales and 683 million for those of fall 2019, before the pandemic.
With AFP
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