Rare Frida Kahlo Painting El sueño Leads Sotheby’s Surrealist Auction

Frida Kahlo painting El Sueño (La Cama), 1940. Image: Sotheby’s

A rare Frida Kahlo painting, El sueño (La cama), is set to go to auction at Sotheby’s, with a price valuation that could break records for a female artist.

BY ARTCENTRON AUCTION NEWS

A masterwork by Frida Kahlo is set to go on the auction block, and expectations are that it will make history. Sotheby’s has announced the sale of Kahlo’s 1940 painting, El sueño (La cama), a piece with an estimated value of $40 million to $60 million. Predictions are that this price tag will shatter the current auction record for a work by a female artist and surpass Kahlo’s own previous record.

The current record for a female artist belongs to Georgia O’Keeffe. Her Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 sold for $44.4 million in 2014. Kahlo’s last record-breaking sale was in 2021 when Diego y yo fetched $34.9 million. It is the most valuable work by a Latin American artist. The upcoming auction of El sueño (La cama) could claim both of these titles.

A Rare Glimpse Into Kahlo’s World

El sueño (La cama) is not just a painting; it’s a window into one of the most turbulent periods of Kahlo’s life. The artist created this painting in the aftermath of her divorce from Diego Rivera and the assassination of her lover, Leon Trotsky. It depicts Kahlo on a floating bed. The scene is surreal and deeply personal. Spiraling vines wrap around the artist’s body as a papier-mâché skeleton hovers above her. This unsettling skeletal figure was a real object that the artist kept and often slept under. This revelation is a detail that highlights the intimate nature of her work.

According to Sotheby’s, this painting is a rarity. This is because it’s one of the few Kahlo pieces not in a museum collection. Additionally, it is not under the protection of Mexico’s cultural heritage laws. This makes its availability on the market a truly significant event for collectors worldwide.

The Surrealist Market on the Rise

The auction of El sueño (La cama) is part of a larger collection of Surrealist works titled Exquisite Corpus. The collection includes works by iconic artists like Salvador Dalí and René Magritte. It will also feature pieces by women Surrealists such as Kay Sage and Remedios Varo. The market for these Surrealist artists is gaining significant traction. This renewed interest was notably sparked by the 2022 Venice Biennale, titled The Milk of Dreams. The art event showcased many women Surrealists.

READ ALSO: Frida Kahlo: Art, Love, Hope, Betrayal

Before the auction in New York this November, El sueño (La cama) will go on display at Sotheby’s galleries in London. It will also be on display in Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, and Paris. This global tour gives a wider audience the chance to see this extraordinary work before it possibly rewrites art history.