Frida Kahlo and Pierre Soulages break records at auction

Published on : 11/17/2021 – 09:13

In the aftermath of an exceptional sale of the Macklowe collection at Christie’s, the art market is once again panicking. 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, where they were sold, Tuesday, November 16, for 34.9 million and 20.2 million dollars.

As expected, the self-portrait of the legendary Mexican painter “Diego y yo” (“Diego and me”, 1949), one of those where the face of her husband Diego Rivera appears on his forehead, smashed the old record by Frida Kahlo ($ 8 million in 2016).

Sotheby’s announced that it had been acquired by the “Eduardo F. Costantini Collection”, named after the Argentinian entrepreneur and collector, founder of the Museum of Latin American Arts (Malba) in Buenos Aires.

“Diego y yo” also becomes the most expensive Latin American work of art in history at auction, the previous record belonging to a painting by – rightly – Diego Rivera, “Los Rivales” (1931), sold 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 Mexican painter, icon of feminism, famous around the world, who died in 1954 at the age of 47.

But in this painting, 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.

Double his estimate for Soulages

The painting by Pierre Soulages, who had spent more than thirty years in a private collection, corresponds to the red period of the century-old French artist, who became famous for his excellence in the mastery of black. Painted on August 4, 1961, its material effects were obtained using the scraping technique, which reveals the red tints 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 (9.6 million euros in Paris).

>> To read: At 100 years old, the painter Pierre Soulages continues his work

One of the other highlights of the evening was the sale of a painting by the impressionist Claude Monet, “Coin du bassin aux nymphéas” (1918), for $ 50.8 million, far from its record. $ 110.7 million in 2019, still in New York.

After several mixed seasons due to the pandemic, New York’s fall 2021 sales results look positive, with auction houses claiming to have found a sufficient supply to meet demand that has remained strong.

On Monday, Sotheby’s broke its all-time record for a single auction night, selling 35 works from the highly regarded Macklowe modern and contemporary art collection for $ 676 million.

For its part, Christie’s announced to have realized for 1.1 billion dollars last week, against 691 million for these spring sales and 683 million for those of fall 2019, before the pandemic.

With AFP