A self-portrait created in 1940 by the renowned Mexican artist Frida Kahlo 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 a female artist. The painting, titled “El sueño (La cama)” or “The Dream (The Bed)” portrays Kahlo sleeping in a bed and surpassed the previous record set by Georgia O’Keeffe’s “Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1,” which sold for $44.4 million US at Sotheby’s in 2014. Kahlo’s highest auction price before this was $34.9 million US for “Diego and I” in 2021, showcasing her and her husband Diego Rivera. Despite this, her artworks are known to have sold for even higher amounts in private transactions.
The self-portrait was part of a private collection with the owner remaining undisclosed, making it legally available for international sale. Some art experts have raised cultural concerns about the auction, fearing the painting, last displayed publicly in the late 1990s, could once again vanish from public view. Requests have already been made for upcoming exhibitions in cities like New York, London, and Brussels.
The painting depicts Kahlo asleep in a colonial-style bed floating in the clouds, covered in a golden blanket and surrounded by vines and leaves. Above her lies a skeleton figure wrapped in dynamite. Kahlo, known for her vivid and candid self-portrayals, began painting after a life-altering bus accident at 18, which left her bedridden. She underwent multiple surgeries on her spine and pelvis, wearing casts until her death at 47. During her bedridden years, Kahlo saw the bed as a connection between worlds, contemplating her mortality.
The self-portrait is the highlight of an auction featuring over 100 surrealist artworks by artists such as Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, Max Ernst, and Dorothea Tanning. Kahlo rejected the label of surrealist, preferring to paint her own reality rather than dreams. The painting is described in the Sotheby’s catalogue as a contemplation on the thin line between sleep and death, with the suspended skeleton symbolizing Kahlo’s anxiety about dying in her sleep, influenced by her chronic pain and past traumas.