A self-portrait of Frida Kahlo fetches a record $ 34.9 million at auction

(CNN) – A self-portrait of Frida Kahlo became the most expensive work by a Latin American artist ever sold at auction, fetching $ 34.9 million in New York on Tuesday.

The price tag for the painting “Diego y yo” far surpassed the previous record of $ 9.8 million, set by a work by Kahlo’s husband – and the inspiration for his own painting – Diego Rivera, in 2019.

Sotheby’s auction house said in a statement that the price “places Frida Kahlo in the midst of the great titans of art history.” The sum also broke the public auction record for a Kahlo work of $ 8 million, set in 2016, the auctioneer said.

“Painted in the same year that her beloved Diego embarked on an affair with her friend, the Mexican actress of the Golden Age, María Félix, this powerful portrait is the painted expression of her anguish and pain,” said the art director. Sotheby’s Latin American Anna Di Stasi in a post-auction press release. “You could say that tonight’s result is revenge supreme, but in fact it is the ultimate validation of Kahlo’s extraordinary talent and global appeal.

‘More than a beautiful portrait’

“‘Diego and I’ is much more than a beautifully painted portrait. It is an illustrated summary of all of Kahlo’s passion and pain, a tour de force of the artist’s raw emotional power at the peak of her abilities.”

Throughout her career, Frida Kahlo painted bust self-portraits, a format that first became popular during the European Renaissance, and are among her most famous works.

Completed in 1949, five years before her death, “Diego y yo” is the artist’s final self-portrait from the 1940s.

After her second marriage to Mexican muralist Diego Rivera – the couple remarried in 1940 after divorcing a year earlier – Kahlo was influenced by themes ranging from Aztec and Eastern mythology to medicine and botany. He also described his health problems and his turbulent relationship with Rivera, creating a personal iconography in his work.

The story of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera

Frida Kahlo met Rivera when she asked him to criticize her work, and the ups and downs of their relationship became a key theme of her art.

Kahlo painted the self-portrait in 1949, five years before her death. Credit: Sotheby’s

“Diego y yo” represents Kahlo with a huipil, a type of traditional blouse of the women of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, in southern Mexico. She wears this particular red huipil in many of her best-known self-portraits and in a famous series of photographs by Hungarian-American portrait painter Nickolas Muray.

Kahlo’s loose hair, usually heavily braided, seems to almost strangle her. Her cheeks are flushed and her eyes are watery.

In the middle of his forehead are Rivera’s head and shoulders, a symbol of his central position in his mind. Rivera, in turn, is represented with a third eye on his forehead.

“Frida Kahlo is a global icon of modern art whose work is loved around the world,” Di Stasi said in a statement announcing the sale in September. “‘Diego y yo’ epitomizes the painstakingly detailed representation, complex iconography, and deeply personal narratives that are the hallmark of his mature painting.”