Mexican art historians weigh in on upcoming Kahlo’s auction that could fetch up to $60 million
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Frida Kahlo “El sueño (La cama)” – “The Dream (The Bed)” in English – is predictably causing a stir among art historians Price tag from $40 million to $60 million When it goes to auction later this month, it will be the most expensive work by any female or Latin American artist.
Sotheby’s auction house will exhibit the painting in London, Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong and Paris, and then offer it for sale in New York on November 20.
“This is a moment of a lot of speculation,” said Mexican art historian Helena Chávez Mac Gregor, a researcher at the UNAM Aesthetic Research Institute and author of “El listón y la bomba. El arte de Frida Kahlo.” (Ribbon and bomb. Art by Frida Kahlo).
In Mexico, Kahlo’s works are protected by an artistic monument declaration, which means the works cannot be sold or destroyed within the country. However, works in private collections abroad, such as the painting in question whose owner is unknown, are legally eligible for international sale.
“The system of declaring Mexico’s modern art heritage is very abnormal,” said Mexican curator Cuauhtémoc Medina, art historian and contemporary art expert.
Judas in bed
“El sueño (La cama)” was created in 1940, following Kahlo’s trip to Paris, where she met the surrealists.
Contrary to contemporary belief, the skull on the bed canopy was a Day of the Dead skeleton, but a Judas – a handmade cardboard figure. Traditionally illuminated with gunpowder during Easter, this statue symbolizes purification and the victory of good over evil and represents Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus.
In the painting, the skeleton is detailed with fireworks, flowers on his ribs and a smiling facial expression; This detail was inspired by the cardboard skeleton that Kahlo actually kept in the shadow of her own bed.
Chavez Mac Gregor said Kahlo “spent a lot of time in bed waiting for death.” “He had a very complicated life because of all the illnesses and physical challenges he had.”
Frida and surrealism
Although Kahlo’s painting is sold at auction along with works by surrealists Salvador DaliRené Magritte, Max Ernst and Dorothea Tanning did not consider himself a member of the movement, although he had met its founder André Breton in Mexico and organized an exhibition in Paris in 1939.
“Breton was fascinated by Frida’s work because he saw the surrealist spirit there,” Chavez Mac Gregor said.
A committed communist, Kahlo viewed surrealism, a movement that proposed a revolution of consciousness, as bourgeois. As Chávez Mac Gregor notes, “Frida always had a critical distance about it.”
Despite this, experts have found in Kahlo’s work a dreamlike inner world and elements of surrealism related to revolutionary and sexual liberation; A concept that can be seen on a bed suspended in the sky, where Kahlo sleeps among a vine.
‘Crazy priced purchases’
“El sueño (La cama)” was last exhibited in the 1990s and may disappear from public view once again after the auction; This is a fate shared by many paintings purchased for large sums at auction.
There are exceptions, including “Diego y yo” ( “Diego and I”), This set Kahlo’s record sale price when it sold for $34.9 million in 2021.
Painting depicting the artist and his wife Mural painter Diego RiveraIt was purchased by Argentinian business owner Eduardo Costantini and later loaned to the Buenos Aires Museum of Latin American Art (Malba), where it continues to be exhibited.
Medina, the art historian, deplored that “crazy-priced” purchases reduced art to a purely economic value.
He complained that when funds purchased art solely as an investment (such as purchasing shares in a publicly traded company), the works were often shipped to tax-free zones to avoid costs. Their fate could be worse; “They could sit in a refrigerator at Frankfurt airport for decades,” he said.
A female artist
The current sales record for a female artist is Georgia O’Keeffe’s “Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1,” which grossed $44.4 million at Sotheby’s in 2014.
But there is still deep inequality in the auction market; because no female artist has yet exceeded the maximum sales price of a male artist. The current reference is “Salvator Mundi,” attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, which was auctioned by Christie’s. $450.3 million in 2017.
