The Mexican listing and legitimation processes
The rebound that the art market has had nowadays is no surprise to anyone, but it is, and with great pleasure, for collectors and art historians, the importance that Mexican artists have had in the art market at the level international, positioning itself in the taste of art buyers who spend their millions in large firms such as Picasso, Matisse, Van Gogh, Rothko among others.
In 2015 works by Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo and Rufino Tamayo have broken auction records, such as Diego Rivera’s work Baile en Tehuantepec (1929) that reached the figure of 15.7 million dollars. [1] In this last auction held on November 22 and 23 at the Sotheby’s house, works by Mexican artists (from various periods) were sold and one of the expectations was if a record of such artists would return. The numbers didn’t move that much, but there were surprises.
The Tamayo Sandías y Naranja (1954) painting sold for 2,292,500 USD, the Diego Rivera Landscape near Toledo (1931) for 1,212,500 USD and one of the most anticipated works was, of course, a Frida Kahlo, which because it was an early work that hadn’t been seen in more than 60 years, Niña con Collar (1929) fetched $ 1,812,500.
Many times, we wonder about the fluctuation of prices throughout the market, there are always economic and geopolitical conditions at the international level that affect the rise and fall of prices. But the laws of the art market are a bit different.
First, because we are working with non-expendable goods, that is, those that cannot be replaced by any other of the same quality, quantity or species, and second, because we are faced with other types of values that affect the monetary value of works of art: Intangible values, which are the cultural and artistic implications, whether it belongs to a peak period of the artist, early work or stage of decline, are factors that influence the appraisal of a piece.
These intangible values, valuable to collectors, are transformed into a monetary value, mostly on the rise. In the case of Tamayo’s work auctioned at Sotheby’s in recent weeks, apart from the fact that it is a canvas belonging to a recognizable and characteristic stylistic stage of him, in which the pictorial mark that national and foreign collectors look for is appreciated. , belonged to the personal collection of Audrey Herburg, something that might seem irrelevant, it is a positive factor for the piece’s own curriculum since it is valued not only from the latest quotes of an artist in the market, for its plastic quality , innovation, also because of its origin, particular history and the collectors who have owned it.
The fact that this work has also gone on sale complies with what the art historian and art market expert Carmen Reviriego says in her analysis and conclusions in that market that: the average time that the most precious pieces take to going back to the market revolves around 40 years.
The mobilization of these works in the international and national market, as well as surprises such as lost or hidden works that rarely come onto the market, is an interesting vein for art historians that helps us understand another aspect of the artistic phenomenon: the market, as well as the study and analysis of collections and unpublished work that would help us understand the artistic processes of each era and artist.
Finally, Mexican works of art from the first half of the 20th century are so highly valued in the international market thanks also to the Mexican legislation itself that controls the exit of these pieces outside the country, in the process of preserving heritage, by giving certain artists in the category of Artistic Monuments within which are the great exponents of twentieth-century Mexican art: Siqueiros, Orozco, Varo, Rivera, Tamayo, Kahlo, Izquierdo among others, the issue of the scarcity of these artists in the market stimulates their trade and the rise in its price.
MTRA. MARÍA EUGENIA FRAGOZO GONZÁLEZ
Académica de la Universidad Pontificia de México y de C.C. Casa Lamm