A self-portrait created by renowned Mexican artist Frida Kahlo in 1940 was auctioned in New York for $54.7 million US ($77 million Cdn), setting a new record as the highest sale price for a piece by any female artist. The painting, titled “El sueño (La cama)” or “The Dream (The Bed),” surpassed the previous record held by Georgia O’Keeffe’s “Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1,” which sold for $44.4 million US at Sotheby’s in 2014.
Previously, the highest price fetched at an auction for a Kahlo artwork was $34.9 million US (then $43.7 million Cdn) in 2021 for “Diego and I,” a piece depicting the artist alongside her husband, Diego Rivera. While her paintings in Mexico are protected as national treasures and cannot be sold abroad or destroyed, this specific self-portrait was part of a private collection outside the country and is legally eligible for international sale.
The painting, originating from an undisclosed private collection, has sparked discussions among art historians regarding its cultural significance and concerns about its potential disappearance from public view after the auction. Despite being last publicly exhibited in the late 1990s, the artwork is scheduled for upcoming showcases in various cities such as New York, London, and Brussels.
Depicting Kahlo asleep in a colonial-style bed floating in the clouds, the painting vividly portrays her entangled in crawling vines and leaves, covered in a golden blanket, with a skeleton figure wrapped in dynamite hovering above. Kahlo, known for depicting her life experiences, began painting following a life-altering bus accident at 18, leading to a series of surgeries and a lifelong struggle with chronic pain until her death at 47.
The self-portrait is part of a larger sale featuring over 100 surrealist works by notable artists like Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, and Max Ernst. Kahlo, though often associated with surrealism, rejected such categorization, emphasizing that she painted her own reality rather than dreams.
Sotheby’s described the painting as a contemplation on the boundary between sleep and death, with the suspended skeleton symbolizing Kahlo’s anxiety about dying in her sleep due to her experiences with chronic pain and past trauma.
