Frida Kahlo‘s Two Nudes in the Forest (The land itself) set an auction milestone back in 2016, when it sold at Christie’s for $6m USD. Sotheby’s is expected to shatter that record this fall, when the artist’s self-portrait, Diego y yo (Diego and I) hits auction for an estimated worth of up to $30m USD.
The painting depicts a double portrait — in the background, Kahlo’s tears and desolate stare is juxtaposed to her husband and fellow artist, Diego Rivera, who in the foreground, is superimposed with a third eye on Kahlo’s forehead. The artwork was one of the last self-portraits created by the artist at the end of the 1940s — a time that of uncertainty in their relationship. Having married in 1929, the two divorced ten years later and remarried again in 1940. However, by the end of that decade, rumor went around that Rivera was having an affair with Kahlo’s good friend and actress, María Félix.
If Diego y yo (Diego and I) sells for its estimated worth of $30m USD, it will not only shatter Kahlo’s own personal record, but that of any Latin American artist and one of the most expensive works by a female artist to have sold at auction. The art will go on a world tour starting in Hong Kong on October 7, then will hit London before landting at auction in New York this November.
Also in the news, the Morozov Collection is now on view at the Fondation Louis Vuitton.
