CHRISTIE'S PRESENTS ITS MOST VALUABLE LATIN AMERICAN SALE IN NEW YORK Following a record breaking year for the category, Christie’s Latin American Sale will
continue the momentum by staging its largest sale yet on May 28-29 in New York
News-Antique.com - May 09,2008 - Latin American Sale
28 & 29 May 2008
New York – Following a record breaking year for the category, Christie’s Latin American Sale will
continue the momentum by staging its largest sale yet on May 28-29 in New York, expected to
realize in excess of $30 million. With more than 320 paintings and sculptures included in the twoday
auction, the sale is particularly strong covering Mexican and Cuban schools, and major artists
including, Diego Rivera, Rufino Tamayo, Fernando Botero, Leonora Carrington, Claudio Bravo,
Alfredo Ramos Martínez, Mario Carreño and others.
“We are proud to present our most comprehensive and most valuable Latin American Sale to date.
With over 145 artists and 14 countries represented, this season features a stellar selection across
various categories including colonial, modernist, surrealist and contemporary works of art — many
never offered before at auction,” commented Virgilio Garza, Senior Vice President, Head of
Latin American.
Leading this season’s sale is Rufino Tamayo’s Trovador (The Troubadour), 1945, an iconic work by
the artist combining the ideal subject matter of the guitarist with the artist’s signature brilliant palette
and scale (estimate: $2-3 million). Trovador has the potential to break the current world auction
record for Tamayo, which was set at Christie’s in 1993 with the 1955 painting, America (Mural).
In the 1946 ARTNews review of Trovador at the Valentine Gallery in New York, the critic placed
Tamayo at the height of his powers and hails the work’s “unbelievable color and supreme intensity
of focus” and further adds that the magnificent painting “could successfully hang alongside Picasso’s
Three Musicians.”
Trovador (The Troubadour) was acquired by the legendary American collector Stephen C. Clarke who
gifted it to the present owner 60 years ago. Rarely exhibited and known to the general public only
through a black and white illustration in Robert Goldwater’s monograph, Trovador has not been seen
in the context of other Tamayo works in more than 40 years.
Painted in 1956, the year before his death, Diego Rivera’s Niño soviético
depicts a Soviet boy pulling a sleigh (estimate: $500,000-700,000). Upon his
return from a visit to the Soviet Union where he had received medical
treatment for cancer, Rivera painted a series of children’s portraits of
campesinos and Soviet children. This tender and expressive portrait exudes the
warmth and innocence of the young boy, bundled in a hat, mittens and red scarf.
Representing the surrealist school is a highly detailed work by Leonora Carrington, Juggler (El Juglar)
(estimate: $600,000-800,000). Painted in 1954 during
Carrington’s artistic prime and most desirable period for
collectors, this is the first time this painting will be offered
on the market. The juggler is a foil for Carrington’s interest
in exploring dimensions of reality, as the juggler performs
and dazzles its audience, he also blurs the truth. The painting
was originally owned by Edward James, an English eccentric
who was responsible for bringing Carrington together with
gallery owner Pierre Matisse, who organized her first onewoman
exhibition. James then left the painting in care of
artist Kati
