Frida Kahlo's Masterpiece Shatters Auction Records
A self-portrait by celebrated Mexican artist Frida Kahlo has achieved a spectacular result at auction, selling for $55 million at Sotheby's in New York on Thursday. This landmark sale establishes a new world auction record for any work by a female artist, surpassing the previous record held by Georgia O'Keeffe.
The Painting and Its Provenance
The work, titled 'El sueño (La cama)' or 'The Dream (The Bed)', depicts Kahlo asleep in a wooden, colonial-style bed that appears to float amongst clouds. She is wrapped in a golden blanket and surrounded by crawling vines and leaves, with a papier-mache skeleton figure adorned with dynamite positioned above the bed.
This painting held the rare status of remaining in private hands outside of Mexico. This was particularly significant because the Mexican government declared Kahlo's work an artistic monument in 1984, banning the export of any of her paintings that were within the country at that time. It was previously acquired at Sotheby's in 1980 by Nesuhi Ertegun, the Turkish-American co-founder of Atlantic Records.
A Deeply Personal and Symbolic Work
The painting is profoundly connected to Kahlo's personal life and physical suffering. Following a near-fatal bus accident at age 18, she endured chronic pain and multiple surgeries, which often confined her to bed for long periods. Her family adapted an easel and fixed a mirror to her bed's canopy, allowing her to paint while lying down.
Art historian Luis-Martín Lozano, who wrote an essay for the auction, suggested the dynamite-wrapped skeleton symbolises "Kahlo's intent to signal a passage between dimensions - between reality and dream, life and death." Created in 1940, a tumultuous year that included her remarriage to Diego Rivera and the assassination of her former lover Leon Trotsky, the piece is a powerful meditation on her reality.
The Record-Breaking Sale and Its Aftermath
The auction saw four minutes of spirited bidding, though it momentarily slowed around the $40 million mark. Ultimately, the winning bid was placed by an anonymous buyer on the phone with Anna Di Stasi, Sotheby's head of Latin American art. The sale price of $55 million comfortably exceeded the previous female artist record of $44.4 million set by O'Keeffe's 'Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1' in 2014.
It also surpassed Kahlo's own previous auction record for a Latin American artist, set when her painting 'Diego and I' sold for $34.9 million in 2021. While the sale was celebrated by some, including Kahlo's great-niece, it also sparked controversy. Some argued her work should remain in Mexico, while others expressed concern that the painting, last publicly exhibited in the late 1990s, might vanish from public view once more.
The painting has already been requested for upcoming exhibitions in major cities, including London, New York, and Brussels, hinting that the public may yet have future opportunities to view this record-breaking masterpiece.
