Noin the painting – from 1940 – there is herself, lying on a bed suspended in the sky: she is wrapped in vines and surmounted by an enormous skeleton covered in dynamite: a representation, in the form of a self-portrait, of her physical and existential condition. It’s called The Dreamthat is to say El sueño (The bed)Frida Khalo’s painting sold at Sotheby’s auction for $54.7 million. Not only is it the most expensive Kahlo painting ever sold at auction. It is also the highest amount ever paid for the work of a woman.
Frida Kahlo is the most “expensive” painter in the world: her “El suegno” sold at auction for 54.7 million dollars
Frida Kahlo’s painting beats like this Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 by Georgia O’Keeffe, an American who was sold at Sotheby’s in New York for 44.4 million dollars in 2014.
Just to have a point of comparison: Gustav Klimt’s painting Elisabeth Lederer was auctioned just the day before yesterday for $236.4 million. Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi was sold (in 2017) for 450 million dollars.
A non-surrealist representation of pain
«Breton thought I was a surrealist, but that’s not true: I have never painted dreams, but only my reality». This is how the great Mexican painter described her art.
Frida Kahlo was one of first women to talk about female physical pain shamelessly, describing the sick body with dedication and in the smallest details. The pain in my back but also those in the soul, the betrayals, the loneliness.
Married (twice) to Diego Riverasuffered the consequences of love. Born with spina bifida and the victim of a very serious accident at eighteen, underwent more than 30 surgeries. Forced to stay in bed for long months, she had a mirror mounted on the roof of the canopy and, from there, began to paint herself, suffering and perfectly aware.
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