A new exhibition offers art enthusiasts in Buenos Aires the chance to examine an iconic self-portrait by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), which is the most expensive work by a Latin American artist ever to sell at auction.
The artist's work "Diego y yo" (“Diego and I”) is the centerpiece of the new "Tercer ojo" (“Third eye”) exhibit at the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (Museum of Latin American Art of Buenos Aires) – also known as the Malba – which opened on Thursday evening.
The museum's founder, Argentinian entrepreneur Eduardo Costantini, bought the painting at auction in New York last November for the record sum of $34.9 million.
Completed in 1949, "Diego y yo" shows Kahlo's own face with her husband Diego Rivera depicted in the middle of her forehead.
The painting is her final self-portrait, created five years before her death in 1954.
It represents her passionate but difficult relationship with the famous muralist, from whom she divorced at some point before the couple remarried in 1940.
The painting was last on public display in 1998, before it was purchased by a private collection in the U.S.
In 2021, it was sold off at auction, fetching the highest price ever paid for Latin American art.
"Tecer ojo" combines Costantini's private collection and works from the Malba, with 240 pieces by Latin American artists like Diego Rivera, Tarsila do Amaral, Xul Solar, Joaquin Torres Garcia, Emilio Pettoruti, Wifredo Lam, Roberto Matta, Maria Martins, Remedios Varo, Antonio Berni and Jorge de la Vega on display.
