(Buenos Aires) An iconic self-portrait by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, to date the most expensive Latin American painting in history, is on display for the first time in a quarter century at a museum in Buenos Aires whose founder acquired it.
Posted at 5:37 p.m.
Diego y yo (Diego and Me), directed by Frida Kahlo 1949, had been acquired in November for 34.9 million dollars at auction in New York, for the “Collection Eduardo F. Costantini”, the Argentinian entrepreneur and collector, founder of the Museum of Latin American Arts (Malba) in Buenos Aires.
The painting will be the main attraction of the exhibition from Friday Tercer Ojo (Third Eye), where Eduardo Costantini will present his private collection, also featuring works by Cuban Wifredo Lam, Mexicans Miguel Covarrubias and Rosa Rolanda, Brazilian Vicente do Rego Monteiro.
Diego y yo, an oil on hardboard, features the intense gaze characteristic of Kahlo’s self-portraits. On her forehead appears the face of her husband, the painter Diego Rivera, above Kahlo’s black eyes from which flow a few tears. Rivera had at the time approached a famous Mexican actress, the source of the uneasiness that Kahlo expresses in the painting.
For me, Frida is a unique artist. She has a dramatic life that she recounts without shame, in a spontaneous and open way. I think that’s precisely what people love about her.
Eduardo Costantini, founder of the Museum of Latin American Arts (Malba) in Buenos Aires
The Malba exhibition, presented to the press on Wednesday, offers more than 240 works, many of which had not been exhibited in public for nearly thirty years. This is the case of Diego y yosince 1998, underlined Eduardo Costantini.
By winning for 34.9 million dollars at Sotheby’s, Diego y yopreviously in the hands of a collector, had become by far the most expensive Latin American painting in history, surpassing Diego Rivera’s record, for a painting (Los Rivales1931) sold for US$9.76 million at auction in 2018.