Octavio Paz described the art of Frida Kahlo as revelations, paths that lead us to her psychic space, images that open the door to her world, snippets of lived moments, or in the case of Frida survived.
Famous for its hundreds of self-portraits that line the walls of museums around the world, the last one Kahlo painted, five years before she died, sold for $ 31 million last Tuesday night, November 16, at Sotheby’s, New York.
The play, from 1949, entitled, “Diego and me“was Frida’s response to yet another of her husband’s infidelities, the muralist, Diego Rivera; this time his indiscretions were named after María Félix.
By the late 1940s the couple had reached a point of understanding in their relationship. After forgiving their mutual infidelities, Frida and diego they lived aware that both had betrayed each other. However, in 1949 when Kahlo learned about Diego’s love affairs with María Félix, the artist fell apart.
Argentine Eduardo Constantini, founder of Museum of Latin American Art of Buenos Aires (MALBA), paid 35 million dollars (already with taxes and commissions) for the canvas on which Frida pours the pain of betrayal for the last time through a self-portrait. “Diego and me“Not only did it bring a new record for Kahlo, but it also became the most expensive work by a Latin American artist ever sold at auction, surpassing the previous record that belongs precisely to Rivera, when his painting,”Rivals“, sold at Christie’s for $ 9.8 million in 2019.
The size of the work is surprising because it is small and at the same time it makes it be thought of as a jewel, a delicacy of visual poetry. It is perhaps the intense vulnerability that he describes when painting himself that is the source of the fascination that this and many other of his works arouse.
The image shows us a Frida that superimposes on her emblematic eyebrows the face of Diego Rivera who in turn has a third eye on his forehead. From the canvas, Kahlo’s eyes look directly and penetratingly at the viewer and tears roll down her face.
The seller was a descendant of a New York collector, who bought it in 1990 at Sotheby’s for $ 1.4 million. Before that, it belonged to Chicago writer and critic Florence Arquin, who was friends with Rivera and Kahlo and to whom Frida dedicates the work on the back of the painting, To Florence and Sam with Frida’s Fondness. Mexico, June 1949. While on the canvas and in the upper right corner it reads in red letters, Mexico. Frida Kahlo 1949. Diego and me.
A senior Sotheby’s executive said that night’s result “It could be seen as Frida’s ultimate revenge, but rather, it is the ultimate validation of Kahlo’s extraordinary talent and global appeal.”
Finally, what did I find interesting about the auction that night?
First, Sotheby’s decision to put a number of very often undervalued Latino women and artists in the same sale as the big top European names like Renoir and Monet. Names like Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo, Joaquin Torres Garcia, Armando Reveron, Wilfredo Lam, were an important part of this auction.
And second, the reaction of the public in the Sotheby’s room to Frida’s painting made it clear to me the multiculturalism of Kahlo, his ability to speak with so many identities. And I think that’s what makes his work so irresistible. However, I couldn’t help but feel, while sitting in that room, the disconnect that exists between the art created by the artist and the art world that exploits his work and thinking while “Diego y Yo” was being sold for so many millions of dollars What would Frida think of all this?
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx