The surrealist self-portrait 'The Dream (The Bed)' by Mexican painter Frida Kahlo became the most expensive work by a woman ever auctioned. On Thursday, it was sold for $54.7 million at Sotheby's in New York. Thus, Kahlo surpasses American Georgia O'Keeffe, whose painting 'Jimson Weed/White Flower No 1' had previously held the record for the most expensive work by a woman, sold in 2014 for $44.4 million. The bidding took place in the brutalist building The Breuer in the Big Apple, where Sotheby's has recently been located, and the buyer was a client who bid through Anna Di Stasi, head of the Latin American Art department at the auction house. The painting, estimated to reach a price between $40 and $60 million, was previously sold at Sotheby's in 1980, but for a significantly lower price: $51,000. The third most expensive work by a woman is also by Kahlo. It is her painting 'Diego and I', which was sold for $34.9 million in 2021. She is followed by 'Untitled' by American Joan Mitchell, also one of the most highly valued women in the art world. Meanwhile, the living woman who has achieved the highest sale price is South African Marlene Dumas, with 'Miss January', sold for $13.6 million this year.
A 'turbulent' moment for Frida Kahlo Kahlo painted 'The Dream (The Bed)' in 1940, at an 'especially turbulent' time in her life due to her tumultuous relationship with Diego Rivera and the deterioration of her health, according to Sotheby's. Therefore, the Mexican woman evokes death in the work and depicts herself sleeping in a colonial-style wooden bed, wrapped in a golden blanket with vines and leaves. Above the bedposts lies a life-sized skeleton wrapped in dynamite, holding a bouquet of flowers and resting on pillows. The background is a sky in blue, lavender, and gray tones, forming a composition that 'defies spatial logic', as the bed becomes both a physical and metaphysical support, details Sotheby's.
Death integrated into life One of the characteristics that distinguish this painting from other Western representations is that it illustrates death integrated into daily life, identity, and creative force, according to the auction house. The skeleton, known as a calaca in Mexican tradition, hovers over Kahlo to 'accompany', not 'terrify': 'Death is not taboo or tragic, but intimate, beautiful, and enduring,' points out Sotheby's. In today's auction, American Dorothea Tanning also achieved a record in her career, as her painting 'Interior with Sudden Joy' became the most expensive work ever auctioned by the artist, reaching $3.4 million. Other big names also shone, such as Remedios Varo, whose painting 'Sans titre' fetched $952,500; René Magritte and 'La Révélation du présent', which sold for $2 million; and Salvador Dalí with his 'Symbiose de la tete aux coquillages', auctioned for $4 million.
