One of Frida Kahlo’s last pictures broke records on Tuesday.
His 1949 self-portrait, titled “Diego Ya Yo,” sold for $34.9 million Tuesday night at Sotheby’s Modern Evening Sale in New York. This is the highest price ever paid for Latin American art.
Painted five years before his death, “Diego Ya Yo” is considered Kahlo’s last self-portrait. The 11.7-by-8.8-inch oil painting shows Kahlo with teary-eyed eyes with a portrait of her husband, Diego Rivera, above her browbone.
Julian Dawes, Sotheby’s Senior Vice President and Co-Head of Impressionist and Modern Art, said: “Tonight’s outstanding result has secured her place in the auction field, making her one of the true titans of 20th century art. ” said in a statement.
“Diego Ya Yo”, an intense painting depicting the state of Kahlo’s delicate marriage, was created when she was experiencing a great deal of physical pain. Natalia Zerbato, an art historian who studies the life of Kahlo and works at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and offers tours based on Kahlo’s life.
The last auction at Sotheby’s was “Diego Ya Yo” in 1990 for $1.4 million. Kahlo’s previous auction record was $8 million for her 1939 painting “Two Nudes in the Forest”, which was auctioned in 2016. Sotheby’s,
“I think it’s also very powerful, because it’s not even one of his most famous works,” Zerbato said. “I think if you just use numbers to talk about how important Frida’s work is, it sounds very important and very marketable.”
In Mexico, much of Kahlo’s art is recognized as an artistic monument, a legal status Which prevents the sale of major Mexican art of the 19th and 20th centuries, said Zarbato.
“For Mexico, no cost can be given to the meaning of Frida,” she said. “From my point of view, I can’t put a price on Frida.”
Gregorio Luc, Mexican and Latin American art expert and lecturer, said Kahlo’s ability to speak to so many identities is what makes his art and story so enduring.
“I believe the reason for Frida’s popularity is that she is multicultural. She is multiracial. She represents it more than any other artist,” said Luke, who lives in Long Beach, California. Former Director of the Museum of Latin American Art.
“Frida Kahlo is the daughter of a German Hungarian Jew and a mother who is indigenous. So her personal heritage has this fusion of races,” he said, adding that Kahlo often displays different cultures and influences in his paintings.
Kahlo was inspired by influences from pre-Hispanic and European works. Luke pointed to her fascination with Eastern cultures and the use of the symbolic third eye in “Diego Yo Yo”.
“She mixes all these things together,” he said. “She creates something that has a mix of everyone. So when people look at Frida, they find something in that painting that speaks directly to them.”
a milestone?
Tuesday’s auction was expected to mark a milestone for Kahlo. Rivera’s “The Rivals” held the record for most valuable Latin American art, having sold for $9.8 million at Christie’s in 2018. Georgia O’Keefe’s “Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1” holds the record for most valuable artwork by a woman, with more than $44 million in 2014 Sotheby’s sales, Baron’s Report,
one in Statement Regarding “Diego ya yo” ahead of the auction, Dows of Sotheby’s said: “When I look at this painting, the phrase ‘abre los ojos’, Spanish for ‘open your eyes’, immediately comes to mind. ”
“I think it also marks the incredible moment that will certainly usher in for Kahlo, as the market opens its eyes to Kahlo in a whole new way and secures her place in the auction arena,” he said. said.
The ever-increasing popularity of Kahlo’s artwork is the best example of how the art world is thinking more critically about value and representation in its auctions.
Brooke Lampley, president of Sotheby’s, said in a statement: “The recent expansion of the modern category to introduce it at our Modern Evening sale in November includes over-representation of underrepresented artists, particularly female artists, and is to rethink That’s how historically they’ve been valued in auctions.” Statement.
Follow NBC Latino Feather Facebook, Twitter And instagram,