The auction “Modern” from Sotheby’s last night it produced 235 million dollars in the prestigious New York house founded in the 18th century. As he impressionismcelebrated this year in Europe (150 years have passed since its emergence into the art world) as the surrealism were the surprises of the evening, which was completed when it was learned that Eduardo Costantini had bought “The Distractions of Dagoberto” for $28.5 million.by the British-Mexican surrealist painter Leonora Carrington. The price of this dream work had a record numbermore than double its low estimate of $12 million.
As expressed by The Art Newspaper and Sotheby’s, Costantini won the lot sitting in the room, even surpassing several telephone applicants. When the hammer fell there was a satisfied applause.
Before the auction of the surreal lot, three applicants bid by telephone for the impressionist work “Meules à Giverny” (1893), by Claude Monet, for eight minutes. Finally It sold for $29.8 million. ($34.8 million with fees), which also generated cheers and applause. The painting was left in the hands of an Asian buyer.
But the most competitive of the night was “The Distractions of Dagobert” (1945), by Carrington that had to six potential buyers bidding on the work, two of whom (one was Eduardo Costantini) were in the room.
Before lowering the hammer, the auctioneer It gave time to the collaborators who took the telephone offers, until the proposal of 24.5 million dollars (without fees) arrived, before a room that contained its anxiety about the bidding. “The gentleman has waited long enough,” said Oliver Barker, the auctioneer who handled the auction last night at Sotheby’s.
Another record for Carrington
He previous record at the auction of a work by Carrington had been for $3.25 million two years ago. With last night’s sale he has surpassed his fellow surrealists Max Ernst (234.4 million in 2022) and Salvador Dalí (21.7 million in 2011).
After sale, Sotheby’s identified Costantini, who is among the Top 200 collectors in the worldwho told the specialized site The Art Newspaper: “I was the one who applied the least 30 years ago when it was last sold here.”
Definitely, a patient collector which has created one of the most beautiful and solid collections of Latin American art, with a focused look.
According to a subsequent statement from Sotheby’s, Costantini stressed that the painting acquired “It is iconic and one of the most admired works in the history of surrealism.”; “It is an incomparable masterpiece of Latin American art.”
Costantini was happy to remember that 30 years ago he had been the highest bidder for this piece, which last night was the apotheosis. “Once again we set a new auction record! This masterpiece will be part of the collection where there are also, among others, two important works by Remedios Varo and another by Frida Kahlo that broke records“said the renowned founder of Malba.
As reported Clarín Culture this week, Malba has just inaugurated a special room for Frida Kahlo and Diego Riverawithin the framework of the Third Eye exhibition, where works by another surrealist, the Spanish-Mexican Remedios Varo, which are exhibited for the first time, occupy a special place and They had a fruitful dialogue with Carrington.
The title of the Malba exhibition comes from the work of “Diego and I” (1949), a work that set the sales record for Latin American art in November 2021, when Costantini acquired it for his personal collection.
It is the last self-portrait bust painted by Frida before her deathwith Diego Rivera’s face as a third eye.
This work was part of the exhibition until March 2024 when was loaned to the Venice Art Biennalecurated in this edition by the Brazilian director of the MASP (Sao Paulo Art Museum), Adriano Pedrosa.
The Biennale will remain until next Novembereither. The painting represents the artist’s loving obsession, but also alludes to an intuitive vision, which may well be that of Eduardo Costantini when creating his art collection, one of the most renowned in Latin America.
Rise of artistic currents
A Carrington’s second painting, titled “Who are you, White Face? (1959), which features a winged and horned horse creature, raised 2 million dollars within estimates ($2.5 million with fees).
Three batches earlier, the surprising composition of Varus remedies 1960’s “Skier (Traveller),” populated by a pair of encapsulated owls guarding a fur-covered figure in a snow-covered forest, more than doubled its high $1.5 million expectation, reaching 3.4 million dollars ($4.2 million with fees).
The offer of paintings surreal artists was completed with “Le train” (1975), by Leonor Fini, in which two female train passengers are seen sitting in profile, each dressed in gauze dresses. The work raised $350,000 ($444,500 with fees) after a four-bidder chase that surpassed the high estimate. The painting had last sold in 2013 in Paris.
Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera They were part of an artistic trend that is highly valued today.
The works of art auctioned last night capture the spirit of the artists that throughout the world, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, challenged artistic practice and created a modern vision of art.
Artists working through Impressionism, Surrealism, Cubism and Abstract Expressionism, last night’s “Moderna” auction highlighted several notable artistic lines of the last 150 years.
This year The centenary of Breton’s Surrealist Manifesto is celebrated (1924), which argued that once the restraints of bourgeois reason and etiquette were overthrown, human imagination could finally defeat the monotonous tyranny of reality. The artists and writers of the surrealist circle They wanted to go beyond the veil of everyday affairs and probe the mysterious workings of the unconscious mind.
In this senseMexico City in the 1940s was an exceptional nexus of different artistic currents and home to some of the most exciting avant-garde movements in the world.
This was highlighted by Emily Nice, specialist in Latin American art at Sotheby’s. “Mexico was, at that time, a thriving hotbed of creativity, since an old guard of established artists – the muralists – mixed with younger painters such as Rufino Tamayo and Frida Kahlo, the surrealists who came from Europe and American artists such as Robert Motherwell and Edward Weston.
Thus was born a cultural and experimental syncretism that last night, at Sotheby’s, showed its impressive value in the art market.
