Frida Kahlo Portrait Sells For Highest Anyone Has Paid For Latin American Art
Video screenshot via Sotheby’s
A lesser-known Frida Kahlo self-portrait sold for US$34.9 million on Tuesday at Sotheby’s Modern Evening Sale in New York, shattering the record for the highest price ever spent on Latin American art.
It was the first time in over three decades that the 1949 oil painting, Diego y yo, was placed on auction. Experts believe that the 1.7 x 8.8-inch piece, painted five years before the Mexican artist’s passing, is her final self-portait.
The art depicts an emotional Kahlo with tears in her eyes, while a smaller portrait of her husband Diego Rivera sits above her eyebrows, his presence seemingly weighing on her mind. It’s a portrayal of their marriage’s volatility, explained art historian Natalia Zerbato, via NBC News.
The painter was also in severe physical pain at the time, making the work’s impact especially sonorant.
“I think this is very powerful, too, because it’s not even one of her most famous works,” said Zerbato, who’s been studying Kahlo’s life. “If you use just the numbers to talk about how important Frida’s work is, it looks very important and very marketable.”
The closing price far exceeds Kahlo’s previous auction record of US$8 million for the 1939 Two Nudes in the Forest in 2016.
Sotheby’s senior vice president and co-head of impressionist and modern art Julian Dawes remarked that the milestone further cements Kahlo’s place as “one of the true titans of 20th century art.”
[via NBC News, cover image via Sotheby’s]
