USA: Works from Matta and Botero highlight Sotheby's sale of Latin American art

Paintings by Matta and Fernando Botero will hit the auction block in Sotheby's Latin American art sale on Tuesday (November 20). The sale, which features all facets of Latin art from the past 500 years, will also include the recently recovered piece, "Tres Personajes" by Rufino Tamayo. Highlighting Sotheby's fall sale is Matta's "Et At It," which represents a breakthrough for the Surrealist artist, as it was through this work that Matta mastered the means to transmit the effect of perpetual transformation. "This piece marks a very important point in Matta's work. It's when he passes from a very anthropomorphic style of painting to a style that is more hard, and a little dark, and he is exploring the space in a more linear manner," said Carmen Melian, Sotheby's director of Latin American art. "Et At It" is expected to fetch between 2.5 and 3.5 million U.S. dollars. Works by Botero are always a staple at Latin American sales, and this one is no exception. The most significant to go up for auction is "Dejeuner sur L'Herbe," estimated at 1.4 - 1.6 million (USD). The piece was the first work by Botero to command more than one million (USD) at auction, when it sold for 1,045,000 (USD) in 1991. Tamayo's "Tres Personajes" is garnering a lot of attention in the sale's preview. The piece, which demonstrates Tamayo's technical mastery of color, was stolen 20 years ago from a storage facility in Houston, Texas. It was found years later on a New York City sidewalk and has since been returned to its original owners, now selling the piece. Sotheby's estimates its value between 750,000 - one million (USD). Mexican artist Remedios Varo will be represented in the sale with his "Au Bonheur des Dames," which depicts a fantastical world of hybrid female creatures that are part machine, part human. The work is estimated at 600,000 - 800,000 (USD). New York's art market has had a fickle season; earlier in November a Vincent van Gogh landscape failed to sell at Sotheby's while other works fell short of their estimates. But Melian insisted that she feels confident about the Latin sale. "We have had a very good reception from our clients, and let's see what happens; now it's in the hand of God," said Melian. Sotheby's fall sale includes 290 lots with an expected total sale reaching between 21 and 28.5 million (USD).

ITN Source | November 26, 2007

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