A self-portrait of Frida Kahlo was auctioned for nearly $ 35 million in New York, a record that makes it the most expensive painting ever made by a Latin American artist. The painting, entitled “Diego y yo”, represents the face of the famous Mexican painter with the features of her husband, Diego Rivera, appearing on her forehead. The previous record for a Latin American artist belonged to Rivera himself, whose “Los Rivales” sold for $ 9.76 million in 2018.
Completed in 1949, “Diego y yo” went to auction at Sotheby’s offices in Manhattan. The buyer remains unidentified. The price, the auction house points out, includes $ 3.9 million in taxes. Oliver Barker, batsman and senior director of Sotheby’s, presented the painting at the beginning of the auction as follows: “This is one of Frida Kahlo’s most important works ever to be auctioned and we are thrilled to think it will happen here”.
Frida Kahlo, who lived long periods of immobility in bed due to an accident in her youth, created about 200 works including paintings, sketches and drawings. The subject, especially herself, self-portraits in which Frida re-elaborates and transforms misfortunes in life into works with bold colors and great symbolic force. Frida Kalho also gained stardom only after her death in 1954, becoming a powerful feminist icon in the 1970s.
1 comment
I seem umable to get the picture of all this …. very strange to me for this painting to sell at such a price. Is it
worth it or not. I think not. Thanks. Frank Simmons