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If something portrays people, it is the objects that surround us or those that we treasure throughout life. This has been fulfilled to the letter with Chinese Skunk, who today marks the centenary of his birth. Seven years after her death, her nephews decided to send paintings, small pieces of furniture, books, medals and even stoles and shawls to auction that belonged to the charismatic artist, who for more than six consecutive decades dedicated her life to theater and art in the broadest sense of the word and made philanthropy his reason for living.
Sebastian Zorrilla, director of Zorrilla Auctions and relative of China, will be in charge of lowering the hammer to the one hundred and fifty batches of objects that were part of the most personal world of the actress, both in her home in Buenos Aires, where she lived for more than 35 years, and her house in September 21 street in Punta Carretas.
Those who enter the premises on Calle Soriano and Julio Herrera y Obes, and after going through a world of paintings by Uruguayan and foreign painters, will find a space in which it is easy to recognize objects from China. There is no poster or photograph of her, but there is a wall covered with oil paintings and framed drawings by her father, the sculptor José Luis Zorrilla de San Martín. They are 20 in total.
Nothing that is exhibited there is luxurious, but everything has that patina that gives the passage of time and life when it has been known how to live it. At times, it seems that in that space everything is set and arranged so that from one moment to another China herself makes her appearance and – as she used to do every time she came on stage – fills the place with her unmistakable voice and her unrivaled talent.
Two paintings, which always appeared in the photos taken of her in her apartment in Buenos Aires, are in the center of the wall. One represents Calliope, the Greek muse of the beautiful voice and epic poetry. The other represents Polimnia the muse of dance and harmony. They are works of hers that her father painted expressly for her.
On the side of these paintings, two jewels are seen; These are two drawings made by Rafael Barradas (circa 1912) in which the author portrayed Don Juan Zorrilla de San Martín and José Luis. Both are signed Pérez Barradas. A little further down, a bronze sculpture represents the masks of the Greek theater: tragedy and comedy, figures to which China recurrently appealed to defend the value and work of comedians. “In the Greek theater, the masks of tragedy and comedy are the same size”, maintained the well-known compatriot actress, comedian and staunch defender of refined humor.
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Followed by a framed drawing of Federico Garcia Lorca in pencil on paper, with a sun that symbolizes Montevideo and recalls his visit to Uruguay in 1934. As was customary for the Spanish poet and playwright, his signature is part of the drawing itself.
No less striking and of extraordinary craftsmanship, they are two drawings of gauchos, signed and dedicated by his father to China in 1966.
But there are also chairs from Vienna, which were the first pieces of furniture that China bought to adorn her apartment in Buenos Aires, when in 1972 she decided to accept the work proposals made to her in Argentina and settled on the neighboring shore. The prohibition to act in our country would come in 1975, after the death of her father.
The books form a separate chapter. There are English copies of works by Bernard Shaw, like Saint Joan whose title page is signed by China and which she bought in 1947 when she was studying theater at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in England. In them, her name appears and also the address of her house in London: “34, Glancester Place. London W.1”
Also for sale are works by Edward Galeano dedicated. Soccer in the sun and shadow is one of them, in which the author wrote in his own handwriting: “With a hug this book written for the conversion of the profane.” And of Mario Benedetti. It is known that both professed mutual admiration and were united by a long-standing friendship. On the cover of his collection of poems, Love, women and life, Benedetti stamped: “For China, with so many good memories and admiration forever.”
They are there, the original libretto of Adam and Eve’s diarywith annotations made by China, a single disc with the song from the legendary play An Entanglement and a Marquis that he co-starred with Taco Larreta in the TCM times and a book that belonged to Sarah Bernhardt and that China bought in Paris in 1960.
“For me it is a great honor to auction off the objects from China,” auctioneer Zorrilla told El País, who does not hesitate to describe this as the most important auction he has had to hold in his twenty-one-year career. Zorrilla, he indicated, that all the lots will come out with a certificate that guarantees their authenticity signed by the Zorrilla family.
Visiting the exhibition at Remate Zorrilla, which starts today, Monday, March 14, the hundredth anniversary of the birth of China, is a unique experience. There, you can find the best portrait of the life of a woman who devoted herself entirely to art and philanthropy.
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