Frida Kahlo’s 1940 self-portrait El sueño (La cama) has sold for USD $54.7 million at Sotheby’s in New York, becoming the most expensive work ever sold by a woman artist and the highest-priced Latin American artwork in history.
The surreal piece, long held in private hands and unseen publicly for nearly 30 years, surpassed the previous record set by Georgia O’Keeffe and eclipsed Kahlo’s own Diego y yo.
Depicting Kahlo lying in a floating bed entwined with vines beneath a skeleton suspended by dynamite, the painting reflects her enduring themes of pain and tenacity – a mirror into her own life which was marred by a near-fatal bus accident when she was a teenager, causing her life-long physical injury and pain.
Sotheby’s praised its rarity, emotional intensity, and global resonance, noting strong public interest during its international previews.
Still ugly as f
the artwork, the artwork
No accounting for taste or lack of it. I could do better than this and it wont cost millions, either.