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A self-portrait of Frida Kahlo, an artist known for her raw emotional intensity, sold for $34.9 million at Sotheby’s Tuesday night, setting an auction benchmark for the most expensive artwork by a Latin American artist.
Completed five years before his death in 1954, the oil painting “Diego and Me” is one of Kahlo’s last self-portraits and is an example of the disturbing intimacy that draws collectors to his paintings. The work offers a window into the artist’s turbulent marriage with Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, who is depicted just above her tearful eyes.
Kahlo set a new record for a Latin American artist at auction, surpassing a benchmark set by Rivera in 2018 when one of her paintings sold at auction for $9.76 million – or the equivalent of $10.75 million today, taking inflation into account.
A Sotheby’s spokesperson identified the painting’s buyer as Eduardo F. Costantini, the founder of a museum in Buenos Aires. The work was purchased for his private collection. The spokesperson refused to reveal the identity of the seller.
Sotheby’s Latin America artistic director Anna Di Stasi received the winning bid of $34.9 million after fees were received. There was a big sale even before the auction started because Sotheby’s had accepted both a guarantee and an irrevocable offer, meaning a third party had already made an offer that it couldn’t be reversed.
Referring to “Diego and me,” Adriana Zavala curated a film. 2015 Kahlo exhibition At the New York Botanical Garden, “This is an important late work from a time when his physical suffering was intensified and his paintings became disorganized.” said.
“It looks less polished and balanced,” Ms. Zavala added.
Born in Mexico City in 1907, Kahlo began painting in 1926 while recovering from a bus accident that left her with chronic pain. She has developed a rich iconography that touches the realms of life and death, confounding violence and vulnerability in ways that often shock audiences by challenging gender norms. He died at the age of 47.
“Diego and me” is a “museum-quality piece,” said Brooke Lampley, Sotheby’s president and head of worldwide fine art sales. He added that cultural institutions show an interest in the artwork, but the demand from private collectors is high. “Frida is now on the wishlist of collectors collecting great masterpieces of modern art.”
The last time “Diego and Me” was at Sotheby’s was in 1990, when it was the first work by a Latin American artist to sell more than $1 million. The value of Kahlo’s paintings has increased significantly since the 1980s, when one of her portraits sold for $85,000. Some art historians attribute the price increase to the increasingly limited availability of his paintings.
“Frida is becoming one of the most popular artists in the world,” said Gregorio Luke, former director of the Museum of Latin American Art in California. He explained that Mexican laws prevented the domestic sale of leading artists of the 19th and 20th centuries, such as Kahlo. “So the price is the result of a lot of attention to the artist and very little inventory,” he said. “There are probably less than 20 to 30 pictures on the market.”
Some fans watching the auction saw Kahlo’s ability to beat her husband’s record as a sign of the times. Jorge Daniel Veneciano, senior curator at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles, explained that the woman often forgotten in married artist couples is the woman. “In terms of gender politics, that’s a good thing,” said Mr Veneciano. “We can now say that Diego Rivera is Frida Kahlo’s husband because he outshines her.”
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