The world of art is abuzz with exciting news as the sale of a painting by legendary surrealist artist Frida Kahlo achieved major accomplishments at a Sotheby’s auction. The piece, ‘El sueño (La cama)’ was sold for a whopping $54.7 million, shattering the auction record for an artwork made by a female artist as per BBC. It also broke the record for the highest amount of money paid for a Frida Kahlo portrait which had previously sold for $34.9 million in 2021.
As the painting sale was closed, the crowd broke into applause, celebrating the record-breaking moment. Auction house Sotheby’s even posted the thrilling bid for the painting on their Instagram page with the caption: “Marking a new record for the most valuable work by a woman artist ever sold at auction, Frida Kahlo’s ‘El sueño (La cama)’ sold to applause at #SothebysNewYork tonight at $54.7 million.”
El sueño (La cama) is one of Kahlo’s most profound works
El sueño (La cama) which translates to The dream (The bed) was in a private collection for 45 years which is a rare thing for Kahlo’s work. It is one of the few paintings by the artist available on the public market due to Mexican authorities declaring her work as artistic monuments in the 1980s as per BBC. This means that her paintings cannot be exported without authorization.
The painting depicts Kahlo lying in slumber beneath a canopy bed and covered by a blanket of climbers while a skeleton wrapped in dynamite and clutching a posy of flowers hovers above. It is in equal parts cheerful, dreamy and macabre which points to the turbulent times in the artist’s life when it was painted. According to Sotheby’s El sueño (La cama) is one of Kahlo’s “most profoundly intimate self-portraits”.
“‘El sueño (La cama)’ arises from a pivotal moment in Kahlo’s life, one marked by health complications from earlier illness and accident, as well as the turbulence of her divorce from and subsequent remarriage to artist Diego Rivera in 1940. The bed became a crucial symbol of challenge and resilience, providing the deeply personal setting for many of her self-portraits, while the skeleton which she kept above it served as a reminder of mortality and tradition,” The auction house elaborated on their Instagram post about the auction.
About Frida Kahlo
For the unversed, Frida Kahlo is one of the most important artists of the 20th century. Born to a German father and a Mestiza mother, her works are heavily influenced by Mexican culture and folklore. Her paintings were primarily portraits, self-portraits and sceneries in her signature surrealist style. She frequently introduced themes of postcolonialism, disability, identity, gender, class and race in her artwork.
Though she remained by and large unnoticed while she was alive, the 1970s saw political activists and art historians rediscover her body of work and bring her out into the spotlight. By the 1990s, she had not only become well known in artistic circles but also regarded as an icon for Chicanos, the LGBTQ+ community and feminists. Today she is one of the most revered female artists of all time and certainly the most well known and her works fetch millions of dollars at auction houses like Sotheby’s.
