Paintings by Raul Anguiano, David Alfaro Siqueiros and Rufino Tamayo sold here for a combined $1.2 million in scoring the three top bids at Casa Morton’s auction of Latin American art.
Anguiano’s “Allegory of Mexico: the natural products” was knocked down for the highest price of 5 million pesos ($416,000) at the Thursday night auction in the Mexican capital.
The painting shows the tree of life and some indigenous figures - a Maya weaver, potters and miners - with the god Quetzalcoatl emerging among them to symbolize the coming Spanish conquest of America and the economic and cultural exchanges between the two worlds.
Second place went to an untitled piece by Siqueiros for 4.8 million pesos ($400,000), in which the artist displays the strength of his perspective with industrial painting techniques and his characteristically colorful palette.
“The Fire Eater” by Rufino Tamayo is a tremendously dynamic work focused on the fire a fakir is about to swallow surrounded by a many shades of white and grey, and which also sold for around $400,000.
Assigned an estimated value at the event were numerous works by outstanding Latin American artists such as Diego Rivera, Frida Kalho and Jorge Gonzalez Camarena.
