Latin American art comes from a diverse range of sources. Indigenous, African, and colonial influences have mixed and merged in various ways to produce art that is truly unique to the region. Latin American art is also one of the emerging markets within the auction space, with well-known artists such as Frida Kahlo and Fernando Botero having their art sold at high prices globally.
With the names of many of these artists becoming much more famous and prevalent at art auctions, Christie’s has assembled an auction that features some of the most important Latin American artists and their work, with the top lots being the paintings of Leonora Carrington (1917-2011), Fernando Botero (1932-2023), and Rufino Tamayo (1899-1991).
Christie’s New York’s Latin American Art sale will take place on 28 February, and leading the 52-lot sale is Carrington’s painting Ikon, estimated between US$1.2-1.8 million.
Lot 31 | Leonora Carrington (1917-2011) | Ikon, Egg tempera on panel
Painted in 1988
77.5 x 61 cm
Provenance:
- Brewster Gallery, New York
- Private collection, Mexico (acquired from the above)
Estimate: US$1,200,000-1,800,000
Born in Lancashire in the United Kingdom in 1917, Carrington was a rather rebellious child with a massive imagination, having grown up on a Gothic revival estate. She was expelled from two different schools until her father managed to get her into the Ozenfant Academy of Fine Arts, where she would become familiar with Surrealism, becoming a major member of the movement.
Because most of her professional career, at this point, was based in mainland Europe, Carrington was part of a wave of European artists who fled the Second World War to Mexico, having moved there in 1942. Carrington would live in Mexico for the rest of her life, becoming a celebrated Surrealist painter and naturalized citizen.
Carrington in her studio in Mexico City, in 1956
Carrington flourished in Mexico, where her connections within the Surrealist movement and the success of Surrealist exhibitions afforded her unprecedented access to the Mexican art scene and resources. Her first exhibition, held in 1959 in Mexico City, received a great deal of fanfare and a positive reception from the Mexican population, critics, and press.
Her artwork would then become a part of the daily Mexican culture as she produced murals and statues that were seen around Mexico. She was also a major admirer of Mexican culture, which she tried to incorporate into her work, such as the Indigenous themes in El Mundo Magico de los Mayas, which is a surrealist painting imbued with local Mexican folk stories.
Carrington was also a feminist who sought to use Surrealism to engage with femininity and her own experiences as a woman to paint her work. She once stated, "I [Carrington] painted for myself...I never believed anyone would exhibit or buy my work."
Furthermore, Carrington was interested not just in femininity, but also in nature and how these forms could meld with each other in mysterious ways. For example, she once reflected on her own identity and how she would associate it with hyenas and horses.
The human-animal hybrids featured in the lot Ikon
These Carrington themes are extremely prevalent within Ikon, as Carrington liberally meshes the human and animal forms across this Surrealist painting that features numerous bizarre and unnatural subjects. She painted this work following the aftermath of the 1985 Mexico City earthquake when she had temporarily left the country for New York City where she lived in a basement.
Ikon was one of the works that Carrington produced during this period in New York City, with there being eighteen others. They are meant to invoke a certain fear in the audience as they exhibit the primal fear of submergence. They are intended to invoke the fears people have about small cracks in the wall or being submerged, all while using the subjects to exhibit different emotions and ideas that Carrington had.
The dog on the bottom left, for example, is meant to exhibit wisdom and the mystery of learning. Additionally, the addition of the “crones” and old women Carrington imbues this work with some of her feminist philosophy, as they reject ideals of youth and beauty, the more traditional way women are portrayed in Western art.
These subjects' combination with human features also highlights a type of metamorphosis or change; this can be tied to her move to New York from Mexico City. At the same time, they highlight how one should never change to the point of permanence and that one should always be on the move, ready for change.
The dog and the crones in Ikon
Lot 7 | Fernando Botero (1932-2023) | Arcángel, Oil on canvas
Painted in 1986
200 x 136.5 cm
Provenance:
- Galería Fernando Quintana, Bogotá
- Acquired from the above by the present owner, September 1987
Estimate: US$800,000-1,200,000
Born in Medellín, Colombia, in 1932. Fernando Botero’s work is some of the most distinctive and recognizable art in the world. His depiction of large, exaggerated people serves as criticism or commentary on topics of the day.
Botero was quite a well-traveled artist, with him moving to various cities outside his native Medellín, having lived in Bogota, New York City, Barcelona, Madrid, and Paris. He was also constantly studying as he saved money to build his artistic career.
A key component throughout his work, aside from his distinctive style, is criticism of politics and ongoing events. Notable during the US occupation of Iraq, he was critical of the US treatment of detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison and painted 85 paintings and 100 drawings over fourteen months. None of these were made available for sale, and many were donated to human rights museums and universities.
The focus on politics is even connected to his native Colombia. When the infamous drug lord and a fellow Colombian from Medellín, Pablo Escobar, was killed by the police in 1993, Botero discovered that Escobar owned some of his paintings. Outraged, Botero painted two paintings depicting the shooting and death of Escobar.
Unfortunately, Botero would get caught up in the violence, having been kidnapped in Medellín in both 1994 and 1995. Also, his statue Bird of Peace was blown up by a bomb while his son Fernando Botero Zea was the country’s minister of defense.
Fernando Botero with his paintings
With regards to this current lot on sale, it is done in a very signature Botero style, something that is well-defined and perfected across his works. It consists of a single figure in a situational portraiture style. Important is that his subjects are always extremely, almost comically, large especially when looking at the size of their bodies relative to the background.
These are, as described by critics, “large people.” It’s important to note that he doesn’t consider his subjects to be fat. Instead, Botero states he paints with volume and the “sensuality of form.” When asked why he painted people in this style, Botero answered, “An artist is attracted to certain kinds of form without knowing why. You adopt a position intuitively; only later do you attempt to rationalize or even justify it.”
The top portion of Arcángel displays its religious features
As for this painting, the central focus of Botero is, as the title suggests, an archangel. In Christianity, these beings are protectors of mankind and carry out various other duties for God. As for religion, it was one of Botero’s main themes he painted in his works, including the arrest and crucifixion of Jesus.
However, Botero had a rather interesting relationship with religion. He had a strict Roman Catholic education in his youth, clashing with his artistic interests. Specifically, he enjoyed drawing nude sketches, which got him in trouble, and he was expelled from school for the art of Picasso in an essay. He also sensed the direction religion was heading in terms of its appeal, saying, “Religion is being seriously questioned right now. People are very focused on materialism.”
Because of these life experiences, the way Botero approaches faith and Christianity in his artwork is that it must be free of dogma, and instead, art based on religion should be drawn from our personal everyday experiences. On the matter, Botero stated, “It’s a noble theme for what it is. Take Michelangelo, for example. What would he have painted had he not had religion?”
Lot 24 | Rufino Tamayo (1899-1991) | Mujer con sandía, Oil and sand on canvas
Painted in 1959
130.2 x 96.5 cm
Provenance:
- Knoedler Galleries, New York
- Ms. Eleanor S. and Mr. John M. Shoenberg collection
- Sale; Christie's, New York, 24 November 1997, lot 56
- Private collection, Connecticut (acquired at the above sale)
- Anon. sale; Christie's, New York, 28 May 2015, lot 39
- Acquired at the above sale by the present owner
Estimate: US$800,000 - 1,200,000
Rufino del Carmen Arellanes Tamayo was born in 1899 in southern Mexico. He was of Zapotec descent, an Indigenous group whose cultural identity influenced Tamayo early in his life. However, perhaps the bigger events during Tamayo’s early career were his education and the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920).
During his early education, he left official studies and self-taught himself. Tamayo studied then-modern art styles such as Cubism, Fauvism, and Impressionism, integrating them with Mexican styles inspired by his Indigenous background.
When the Mexican Revolution began, Tamayo, like many other artists, used their skills to produce murals that depicted life in 20th-century Mexico. The whole revolution and subsequent emergence of a one-party state had a great impact on Tamayo uniquely, as while many artists and citizens of Mexico believed that the revolution was a necessity, Tamayo believed that the revolution would harm the country.
Such political beliefs were frequently integrated into Tamayo’s artwork. For example, Niños Jugando con Fuego (1947) signified the Mexican people burning for the choices of their actions. Opinions like these made many see Tamayo as a traitor to Mexico, and he departed his home country for New York City in 1926.
Rufino Tamayo
This is not to say that Tamayo had nothing in common with Mexican artists who had opposing political views to him. A common theme in art at the time was the idea of Mexicanidad, which Tamayo exemplified through his subtle integration of pre-Colombian styles, contemporary Mexican societal ideas, and Mexican mythology into his paintings.
Mexicanidad for Tamayo was also deeply personal as well as reflective of common Mexican life. For example, in this painting, Mujer con sandía, translated into a “woman with watermelon,” the lines, blod varying shades of red, and perspective come from an inherently local and personal background for Tamayo where he worked with his aunt to sell watermelon following his mother’s passing.
More specifically, in this lot, Tamayo’s usage of a rigid woman as the center subject and the distinct geometric shapes around the painting highlight pre-Colombian art, which Tamayo collected. There are additional Cubist inspirations within this painting, a call-back to the start of Tamayo’s career.
Other Highlighted Lots:
Lot 40 | Fernando Botero (1932-2023) | Shoeshine, Oil on canvas
Painted in 1989
198.1 x 130.8 cm
Provenance:
- Marlborough Gallery, New York
- Private collection, Florida (acquired from the above)
- Anon. sale; Christie's, New York, 21 November 2006, lot 39
- Anon. sale; Christie's New York, 24 November 2014, lot 52
- Acquired at the above sale by the present owner
Estimate: US$800,000-1,200,000
Lot 34 | Fransisco Toledo (1940-2019) | El chivo equivocado, Oil and sand on canvas
Painted in 1978
101.6 x 127 cm
Provenance:
- Anon. sale; Sotheby's, New York, 18 November 1991, lot 52
- Private collection, Florida
- Acquired from the above by the present owner
Estimate: US$700,000-1,000,000
Lot 38 | Fernando Botero (1932-2023) | Woman with Dog, Oil on canvas
Painted in 1989
130.8 x 100 cm
Provenance:
- Private collection, Brussels
- Anon. sale; Christie's, New York, 29 May 2008, lot 51
- Acquired at the above sale by the present owner
Estimate: US$600,000-800,000
Auction Details:
Auction House: Christie’s New York
Sale: Latin American Art
Date: 28 February 2025 | 11:00 AM (New York local time)
Number of Lots: 51