The world of art auctions set a new historical record when the painting The Dream (The Bed)of Frida Kahlosold for $54.7 million, making it the most expensive painting sold so far by a woman and by a Latin American artist.
The specialist in the work of Frida Kahlo and Diego RiveraLuis-Martín Lozano assures that this is an ephemeral status because the market always advances. “That is what makes it so attractive since pieces like this appear that in particular were not unknown to experts; although it is an oil painting rarely seen,” he commented in an interview with this medium.
Kahlo’s creative process, unlike what is now conceived in art, was not oriented to satisfy a market, a collector, or fame. Her mission was not to become famous or be recognized as a great painter, and from that perspective, according to Lozano, “He is the antithesis of Diego Rivera”.
“He painted for her, his paintings were aimed at satisfying his own concerns; his works are complex, in them he questions aspects of his life, his biography, his destiny, his desire to be taken into account and, I would say, with a desire to transcend.
“And here this is very important, because Frida is interested in transcending her complexity. That is, she does not want to be a famous painter. There is no separation between the individual and his work“added the researcher.
From that perspective, what makes his paintings attractive is that experiential, conceptual and creative unity.
“When you acquire a painting like The Dream or see an exhibition or a documentary or read his letters, there is this unity in which, as a viewer, you access the human being, the creator and the creative process. That is, there is a comprehensive vision between itwhat he does, what he produces, what he conceives and how he is conceiving it.”
So in The Dream (The Bed) does not have a “divorce of elements” and talks about how she
conceives as an artist. From the point of view of art history this piece has
many pieces of information.
“Frida’s paintings, no matter how famous they become at auction, never pursued that goal, per se. However, each one is the result of a process of great effortit took him time to conceive them, paint them and then when he finished them, he kept them for many years, he returned to them, he touched them up, he changed them, he re-operated on them. There are paintings that he abandoned and never touched again, such as one in the Frida Kahlo Museum in Mexico City.
“This reaffirms the idea that she did not paint to sell immediately, because her works did not fit immediately and she survived with difficulty. At the end of his life he had only one exhibition in Mexico”, according to Lozano.
But 71 years after Frida Kahlo’s death, milestones are being marked in the history of world art.
“Her self-portraits are those that have sold the best; she is a regal, complex, intelligent, cultured, restless artist and all of that is included in the painting of the moment,” adds Lozano.
The record sale of El Sueño occurred two nights after the New York auction house achieved another mark, with Portrait of Elisabeth Lederera painting by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt that fetched $236.4 million, making it the second most expensive work of art ever sold at auction, a record held by Salvator Mundi, attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, acquired for $450 million in 2017.
For whom did Kahlo paint The Dream?
Frida Kahlo made no concessions, he never painted for a market or to satisfy a client. He even complained in an interview that the only thing the market requested of him were self-portraits.
“What is fascinating about this painting, sold for $54.7 million, is that it was not intended for the market and, nevertheless, it is Frida’s work that marks a milestone. It is a conceptual, experiential, personal, artistic and creative unit that, like others, had a specific recipient, Nickolas Murraywith whom they had a relationship for more than ten years,” says art teacher, Luis-Martín Lozano.
The Dream is the picture for a lover, an unconditional friend; It is a self-portrait that he never gives to Nickolas..
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“She wrote him a letter in 1939 where she was very sorry to tell him that, due to financial emergencies with the legal process she was going through, she had to sell the painting and that she gave it to Egyptianwhich surely referred to Don Alberto Misrachi Batino, Marshal of Rivera.”
Muray, in addition to being a friend and unconditional lover of Frida Kahlo, was her patron, for whom he made other paintings such as Self-Portrait with the Necklace of Thorns on Her Neck and Hummingbird.
“He is the eternal watchman, the one who will always accompany her, the one who will watch over her even in her dreams, so the theme of the painting auctioned in New York Thursday has to do with who Nickolas Muray is to Frida,” concluded Professor Luis-Martín Lozano.