Frida Kahlo's Diego y yo, 1949, sold for US$34.9 million at Sotheby's Tuesday evening in New York, a record for Kahlo that also far exceeded the price for any work by a Latin American artist.
Courtesy of Sotheby'sArgentinian real-estate developer and collector Eduardo F. Costantini, founder and chairman of the Museo de Art e Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, was named the winning bidder in the record-setting US$34.9 million sale of Frida Kahlo’s Diego y Yo at Sotheby’s Tuesday evening sale of modern art in New York.
The result for the small-scale self-portrait of the artist, painted in 1949 and depicting an image of her husband, Diego Rivera, on her forehead, smashed records for Latin American art and for works by Kahlo. The previous record for Latin American art was held by Rivera for The Rivals, 1931, which sold for US$9.8 million at Christie’s in May 2018.
Diego y Yo was painted in the same year Rivera began an affair with María Félix, a friend of Kahlo’s.
“You could call tonight’s result the ultimate revenge, but in fact it is the ultimate validation of Kahlo’s extraordinary talent and global appeal,” Anna Di Stasi, Sotheby’s director of Latin American Art, said in a news release. Di Stasi received the winning offer of US$31 million (without fees) by phone in Sotheby’s New York saleroom after a brief round of bidding.
Kahlo’s previous record of US$8 million was achieved at a Christie’s sale in 2016 for Two Nudes in the Forest (The Earth Itself), 1939, setting a new high for a work by a Latin American artist at the time. When Diego y Yo was last on the market in 1990, it sold for US$1.4 million, setting records then, as well, for Kahlo and Latin American art.
Costantini has been a steady buyer of Latin American art at Sotheby’s in recent months. In August he purchased Wilfredo Lam’s Omi Obini, 1943, for US$9.6 million, and Remedios Varo’s Armonia (Suggestive Self-Portrait), 1956, for US$6.2 million, setting artist records at auction each time, according to a news release from the collector.
At that same sale, which focused on rare modern and surrealist Latin American art, Costantini also bought Alice Rahon’s Autorretrato, 1951, and Mario Carreño’s Paisaje cubano, 1943, the release said.
“It is very difficult for this type of superlative works to appear in the open market and when they do, I try to buy them because it can take fifty years to see them again,” Costantini said in the release.
MALBA, as the museum in Buenos Aires is known, was founded 20 years ago with works collected by Costantini forming a core part of the institution’s permanent collection.
While Tuesday evening’s sale cements Kahlo’s status as a masterpiece artist, the final result still didn’t break a barrier for female artists, which remains stubbornly below levels achieved by their male peers. The record for a work by a woman is still held by Georgia O'Keeffe, whose Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1, 1932, sold for US$44.4 million in 2014.
The Kahlo piece sold in just over a minute after auctioneer Oliver Barker opened up bidding with several pre-auction offers. A live offer of US$30 million made via Sotheby’s specialist Julian Dawes was quickly followed by Di Stasi’s winning bid.
Overall, the Sotheby’s sale of modern art totaled US$283 million, just over the high end of a presale estimate range. More than 50% of the works in the sale sold above their high estimate, and 98% of the lots offered were sold.
An auction record of US$20.1 million, with fees, was also set for a dramatic work by French artist Pierre Soulages after more than eight minutes of bidding between five collectors. The estimate for the work was between US$8 million and US$12 million.
A “gargantuan” sculpture by Alexander Calder, as Sotheby’s described it, sold for US$19.7 million, with fees, after 11 minutes of bidding among four collectors. The result was the second highest auction price for a work by Calder.
Italian American painter Enrico Donati’s Spaziale fiorito, 1948, achieved a record US$867,000, with fees, for the artist at auction, while a 1953 ceramic by Pablo Picasso, La Chouette, also set a record, selling for US$3.9 million, with fees, above a US$1.5 million high estimate.
Also, Claude Monet’s Coin du bassin aux nymphéas, 1918, unseen for nearly 25 years, fetched US$50.8 million—the largest amount for a single work in the evening sale. The painting was offered with an “estimate on request” that was said to be in excess of US$40 million. The hammer price of US$44 million was achieved after bidding for nearly four minutes by collectors in the U.S. and Asia.
"work" - Google News
November 17, 2021 at 08:38PM
https://ift.tt/3wSTO1W
Eduardo Costantini Buys Record-Setting Frida Kahlo Work - Barron's
"work" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3bUEaYA
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Eduardo Costantini Buys Record-Setting Frida Kahlo Work - Barron's"
Post a Comment