Total sales of $20,514,600 at Christie´s auction
Christie’s Latin American art auction reached an amount of 20,514.600 dollars, which reflects a market recovery. The amount exceeds by far the 13.8 million dollars that were raised last year. The Cuban and Mexican art pieces dominated the auction in which 12 new records for artists were reached.
The piece Survivor, painted in 1938 by Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) was auctioned for 1,178.500 dollars. This piece, which stands out for its rarity, was released to the market for the first time since it was first exhibited in 1938 at the Julien Levy Gallery, the first individual Kahlo exhibition in New York, which took place in the dates that had been originally assigned to Diego Rivera, who declined the invitation because he was sick but recommended his prominent replacement, who had admirers like André Breton. The central human figure in the small oil over metal was framed by the artist in an Oaxacan craft frame, takes back the ceramic pre-Hispanic iconography in such a way that the solitary character and survivor is a native Indian whose body fuses with the clay pot. From its head springs a crest, not of feathers but of leaves. The New Yorker commented on the image of Survivor, which is described as a Mexican idol looking at a vast solitary field, stating that to Kahlo it symbolized “the survival of Mexico in an uncertain world”. The initial estimated 150.000 dollars was multiplied more tan 10 times.
In the same way, it was surprising that José Clemente Orozco’s piece The City, which belongs to the prestigious Lynch collection was sold for 1.142.500 dollars. In this piece, as the director of the Latin American Art Department at Christie’s pointed out, Virgilio Garza, the Mexican artist, alludes to the stock market crash of 1929, and juxtaposes the empty structure of a tower with a group of scared faces. The price reached surpasses Orozco’s last record, obtained for La Cantina, a painting from 1941, which was sold in Christie’s Paris for 988.031 dollars in 2004.
The colombian artista Fernando Botero continues to have a prominent place in auctions. His monumental sculpture in bronze, Woman on a Horse, had the third higest Price of the season: 1,046.500 dollars, followed by Composición constructiva en planos y figuras, by Joaquín Torres García, sold for 866.500 dollars. Rufino Tamayo’s Figura de pie was sold for 818.500 dollars.
World records were set for twelve artists; most notably for Jesús Rafael Soto’s multi-dimensional Un Trou sur l’Orange, 1970, which sold for $758,500 (£530,950/€621,970). As is characteristic of the artist, the work combines a monochromatic panel, this time in orange, with oscillating metal rods that impart a dynamic spatial and perceptual tension. Soto’s previous record was $657,924. Beatriz Milhazes’ 578, is a synthesis of baroque garb within a richly intellectualized pictorial environment in 578, 1994 and went for $506,500. Milhazes’ O beijo, a 2001 collage featuring candy wrappers and acrylic, went for $110,000 and was a world auction record for the artist on paper. Alfonso Michel’s Naturaleza muerta, was a world auction record for the artist at $218,500. The Mexican Rodolfo Nieto’s Hombre con botella, sold for $194,500 well above its $15,000 - $20,000 estimate, setting a world record for the artist. Ceremonial, 1987, from Venezuelan artist Oswaldo Vigas, brought in $86,500.
World auction records were also set for: Costa Rican artist Juan Manuel Hernández for Entre Montañas, 2007, which achieved $98,500; Cuban artist’s Damián González’s, Islote en la niebla 2009, which sold for $68,500; Costa Rican sculptor Jorge Jiménez Deredia for Arraigo, which brought in $62,500; Brazilian artist Leda Catunda’s, Circulos, 1994, which achieved $25,000 Brazilian artist Frans Krajcberg for Untitled, 1960 for a work on paper, which realized $25,000.
Moreover, the auction sold pieces from the Cuban artist Mario Carreño -Portrait of a Young Woman, auctioned at 434.500 dollars; of the Nicaraguan artist del Armando Morales – Selva se sold for 422.500 dollars; and from the Mexican artists Alfredo Ramos Martínez and Pedro Coronel. The painting of the former, Young Woman Carrying Flowers, was sold for 398,500 dollars, and Coronel’s Sobre la tumba de Justino, sold for 302,500 dollars. Tamazul (Sapo), by Francisco Toledo, was auctioned for 266.500 dollars.
