Christie's New York Latin American Art Evening Sale Realizes $11 Million Tonight |
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| Written by rubin |
| Friday, 29 May 2009 05:07 |
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 One of the
finest examples by Leonora Carrington, The Giantess, also known as The Guardian
of the Egg, painted circa 1947, set a new artist record at $1,482,500, doubling
her previous record for Juggler, el juglar, 1954, which sold for $713,000 at
Christie’s in May 2008. In this surrealist seascape, a towering Giantess
allegorically commands the flora and fauna of the earth, sea and sky. The
Giantess embodies Carrington's fascination with mystical femininity and the
enchantments of the cosmic world. Between her palms she clasps a mysterious
black egg, a symbol the artist frequently includes in her work.
Exceptional results were achieved for four major works from the Collection of the late Milton and Nona Ward of New York. The lead lot of the group was Mario Carreño’s Fuego en el batey (Fire in the farm) from 1943, which sold for $2,188,100. The painting was widely regarded as a lost masterpiece of Cuban modernism until it was recently rediscovered in the couple’s private collection, where it had been for over 50 years. Known to scholars and collectors, but never published in color, Fuego en el batey achieved an iconic stature over time as a key missing link in the scholarship of one of Cuba’s most accomplished artists. Fuego en el batey is one of the three masterpieces from a brief series of paintings in Duco that he painted in Cuba in 1943. Among the other major works in the Ward collection were two other previously unpublished and unknown works by Carreño and his contemporary René Portocarrero. Untitled (Woman with Flowers) from 1945, sold for $60,000, and Untitled, a portrayal of a trio of masked musicians from 1938, realized $146,500, well above its pre-sale estimate. René Portocarrero’s Untitled (Woman with Umbrella), achieved $52,500, a new world auction record for a work on paper by the artist. Total sales achieved for the collection were $2,447,100. A self-portrait by Diego Rivera, commissioned by Sigmund Firestone achieved $1,022,500. Firestone was an American engineer and art collector from Rochester, New York, who met Rivera and Frida Kahlo on a business trip to Mexico in 1939, and subsequently maintained a friendship and correspondence with the artists, commissioning self-portraits from each. The painting was sold along with 14 letters exchanged between Rivera, Kahlo and Firestone during their years of friendship. In one letter, Kahlo affectionately signed the letter with magenta-pink kisses, one for “Sigy” and one each for his daughters, Alberta and Natalie. Additional strong results were achieved for Brazilian artists, with two new world auction records achieved for Helio Oiticica and Lygia Pape. Oiticica’s abstract grid painting Metasquema 19, painted in 1957-58, set a record at $186,500; Lygia Pape’s Untitled (Grupo Frente), a wood relief from 1954 set a record at $86,500. Earlier in the sale, Emiliano di Cavalcanti’s Baianas, 1959, drew $56,250, Candido Portinari’s Menino sentado, 1945, sold for $218,500, and the final lot of the sale, Adriana Varejão’s Azulejaria de cozinha com peixes (Kitchen tiles with Fish), 1995, achieved $146,500. Argentinian artist Roberto Aizenberg’s Pintura, painted in 1988-1989, also set an auction record at $146,500. The Latin American Sale will continue tomorrow at 10am. Click on logo below to add this article to your favorite Social Website ~ |
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