Christie’s and Sotheby’s Spring Sales Evidence the Boom of Latin American Art

Christie’s spring sale totaled $27,731,875 and set 33 new world records. It was comprised of 299 lots and was 84% sold by value and 74% sold by lot. Virgilio Garza, Head of the Latin American Art Department, commented: “Major records for modern and contemporary art were set this season. The sale was led by Matta’s La révolte des contraires, which realized $5 million, against the high estimate of $2.5 million, and set a world auction record for the artist, a long overdue recognition for one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. Brazilian works performed exceptionally well and were 100% sold. The most notable were works by Ernesto Neto, Iberê Camargo, Candido Portinari, Alfredo Volpi, and Vik Muniz.”
Matta’s La révolte des contraires (lot 10) was painted in 1944, when the artist had arrived in New York, after living briefly in Paris. Matta had gained acclaim through his exhibitions at the Julien Levy Gallery and the Pierre Matisse Gallery. La révolte des contraires was painted at a time of great personal and professional growth for the artist, who depicted a cataclysmic space in a perpetual state of change through the utilization of undulating lines and flame-like breakouts of prismatic color.
Sotheby´s spring sale of Latin American art totaled $26,859,250. Its Wednesday 23rd evening sale achieved its highest-ever result for an Evening Sale of Latin American art. Axel Stein, Head of Sotheby’s Latin American Art Department commented: “We were thrilled with the new record price achieved for Wifredo Lam, which was one of nine new artist records set during the Wednesday evening auction. Ídolo is a work we have known for over 35 years, and we always felt that it had the potential to reach new heights. The demand for Abstract, Geometric, and Constructivist art from Latin America was particularly strong throughout the sale, with works by Camargo, Soto, Gego and Cruz-Diez inspiring competition between collectors from around the world.”
Lam’s Ídolo (Oya/Divinité de l´Air et de la mort) shows the artist at the height of his genius. It was sought by five bidders before selling to a South American collector for $4,562,500, double the previous record for the artist. The painting is entirely fresh to the market, having been in the same private collection since 1947.
Other lots fetching outstanding prices at Christie’s included: Grafismo universal sobre fondo gris, painted in 1937 by Joaquín Torres García in tempera on wood panel, which sold for $1,426,500; The Street, an oil on canvas by Fernando Botero (1995), sold for the same price; Claudio Bravo´s oil painting Psalterium (1998) and Candido Portinari’s Navio Negreiro, sold for $1,142,500. The latter sale set a new world record for the artist.
Christie’s sales also saw a number of records for artists, including the one set by the Argentine artist Emilio Pettoruti’s oil Concierto, painted in 1941, which sold for $794,500, well over its high estimate of $500,000. Among the new world records, Carlos Cruz-Diez’s La Physichromie 164, more than doubled its high estimate, selling for $722,500.
Fernando Botero’s Arnolfini (after Van Eyck) beat its high estimate of $700,000 and sold for $842,500. An untitled work by Loló Soldevilla, painted in 1954, and estimated to sell for $40,000, fetched $80,500. Miguel Covarrubias’s gouache, Bather Holding Up Her Kemban, painted in 1934, was purchased by a private Asian collector for $590,500, while Joaquín Torres García’s 1930 oil painting, Constructivist Painting, was sold for $542,500.
New records were also set by the Colombian Hugo Zapata, whose work Cordillera (2011) was sold for $32,500, more than doubling his previous top market price; Menino de Brodowski (Portrait of Arnóbio Martini of Brodowski, an oil painting on paper by Candido Portinari, whose high estimate was $80,000, fetched $242,500, and Iberê Camargo’s work Visão (1982) also doubled its high estimate when it was sold for
$140,500. Other world records for the artist were established by the Mexicans Adolfo Riestra, Rocío Maldonado, and Yishai Jusidman, as well as by the Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto, whose 1992 Untitled (Lot 82 ) was sold for $74,500. The piece by the Cuban collective Los Carpinteros (Dagoberto Rodríguez and Marcos Castillo), more than doubled the previous record achieved by their Ring de boxeo in 2005.
Lots fetching top prices at Sotheby’s include Claudio Bravo’s Ad Laudes, sold for $1,172,500, and Armando Reverón’s Desnudo detrás de la mantilla, auctioned at $872,500. The sale also saw a number of exceptional prices for Kinetic Art, led by the early Jesús Rafael Soto masterpiece Sin Titulo (Vibración Amarilla y Blanca) which sold for $1,022,500, well over the previous record of $758,000. Other strong Soto prices included R hytmes Interferés (1964), which beat its high estimate to sell for $602,500, and Blanco, that sold for $542,500, more than double its high estimate. Works by Carlos Cruz-Diez also performed well, with Chromo-Interference Mecanique selling for $662,500, beating its high estimate of $450,000, and Physichromie No 1.021 fetching $554,500.
Brazilian art was sought by an international group of collectors, including the five bidders who competed to buy Sergio Camargo’s Hommage à Fontana, sold for $1,538,500, well over its $800,000 high estimate estimate. Pieces by Emiliano Di Cavalcanti and Jose Pancetti also sold for prices above their high estimates.
Among the new world records set for artists, the following stand out: Gego (Gertrudis Goldschmidt) Drawing without paper, sold for $602,500; Arturo Herrera, Untitled (Double Castle/Purple), auctioned at $218,500; Héctor Poleo , Maternidad, fetching $170,500; Carmen Herrera, Irlanda, sold for $146,500, and Leonora Carrington, Spider, for $128,500. Artist records were also set for Mercedes Pardo, Fermín Revueltas, Edgar Negret, Sarah Grilo, David Guzmán, Yvonne Domenge, Rennó Rosângela, Ernesto Villanueva, and new records for works on paper were set for David Alfaro Siqueiros, whose Tempestad was auctioned at $434,500, and Antonio Asís, whose Collage No.1045, sold for $16,250.