Painting by artist Marlene Dumas sets new record

A painting by South African artist Marlene Dumas sold for $13.6 million at auction, setting a record for a female artist, according to CNN.

Christie's auction house said in mid-May that Marlene Dumas's work Miss January is "huge" in size, measuring 2.82 meters high.

Miss January is on display at Christie's auction house. PHOTO: REUTERS

"We are delighted with the results of tonight's sale," said Isabella Lauria, head of the auction house, calling the price "unbelievable."

The selling price of Marlene Dumas paintings is not beyond expectations.

Earlier this month, Christie's announced the painting was expected to fetch between $12 million and $18 million.

"With its monumental size and unique subject matter, Miss January is truly a great work by Marlene Dumas," Sara Friedlander, vice president of postwar and contemporary art at Christie's, said in a statement on May 2.

"In this painting, Dumas demonstrated his mastery of the female body, while simultaneously liberating it from a tradition of subjection, subverting normative notions of the female nude through the lens of male-centered history," Ms. Friedlander added.

Painted in 1997, Miss January is Dumas's reinterpretation of "Miss World " - an artwork depicting the figures of 10 models she painted 30 years earlier, when she was just 10 years old.

Today, Marlene Dumas (71) is known as one of the world's most influential artists. According to Christie's, she is "famous for her emotionally charged and psychologically complex portraits, which explore themes of sexuality, race, grief, motherhood and the body."

While the sale price of Miss January set a new record for a work of art by a living female artist, works by male artists typically sell for much higher prices.

Artist Marlene Dumas. PHOTO: AFP

At an auction in mid-May, a 1982 portrait of three people by Jean-Michel Basquiat called Baby Boom sold for $23.4 million. To date, the record for the most expensive artwork by a living male artist is the sculpture Rabbit by American artist Jeff Koons, which sold for $90.3 million in 2019.

The gender gap in art valuation is a systemic problem. The BBC documentary Recalculating Art 2022 found that works by female artists sell for just 10% of the value of works by male artists. So the sale price of Marlene Dumas’ Miss January is a huge step forward in the global art market .

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/tranh-cua-nu-hoa-si-marlene-dumas-lap-ky-luc-moi-185250601090207871.htm