One of the biggest price tags at this year\u2019s Art Basel Miami Beach is attached to one of its smallest works. A Frida Kahlo self-portrait measuring 5cm tall is being shown on the stand of Weinstein gallery from San Francisco.\u00a0Autorretrato en miniatura\u00a0(miniature self-portrait, around 1938) is the only mini of the 55 known self-portraits by the artist.<\/p>\n
The pocket-sized self-portrait is on sale for $15m, a sharp mark up since Weinstein bought it from Sotheby\u2019s New York in 2011, shortly after it failed to sell at an auction for its $800,000 to $1.2m estimate. The work had previously sold at auction in 2000, also at Sotheby\u2019s New York, for $225,750. Kahlo\u2019s market has risen tremendously in recent years and broke the record for a woman artist at auction last month, with the $54.7m sale of\u00a0El sue\u00f1o (La cama)\u00a0(the dream, the bed, 1940) at Sotheby\u2019s New York.<\/p>\n
While the front of the canvas shows the artist sporting her recognisable updo of red flowers and braids, the reverse reveals a more intimate story. Inscribed \u201cPara Bartoli con amor, Mara\u201d (to Bartoli with love, Mara), it is dedicated to one of Kahlo\u2019s lovers, the Catalan poet Jos\u00e9 Bartoli, with whom she had a passionate affair during the final decade of her life.<\/p>\n
\u201cKahlo wrote to Bartoli that she painted this work small enough that he could carry her around in his pocket,\u201d says Weinstein\u2019s founder, Rowland Weinstein. She signed the painting \u201cMara\u201d, a shortened form of Bartoli\u2019s name for her, \u201cmaravillosa\u201d (marvellous), to avoid detection from her husband, the artist Diego Rivera.<\/p>\n
Kahlo is one of several female Surrealists whose prices are quickly rising to match their male counterparts amid a widespread reappraisal of their canonical importance. Works by some of these artists, such as Leonora Carrington and Leonor Fini, are also on Weinstein\u2019s stand. \u201cThe only reason I can have a booth like this is because I began buying 25 years ago,\u201d Weinstein says.<\/p>\n
Kahlo\u2019s paintings are hard to come by at art fairs: only around 150 of them are known to exist, with many in public collections. Weinstein believes this is the first time a painting by the artist has shown at Art Basel Miami Beach.<\/p>\n
The miniature Kahlo painting remains unsold as of this writing. It is exhibited alongside two of her drawings, made when she was bedridden following surgery, both priced at $950,000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the biggest price tags at this year\u2019s Art Basel Miami Beach is attached to one of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302535,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[120249,36282,10346,6225,6485,6486,1120,96,65261,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-302534","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-art-basel-miami-beach-2025","9":"tag-art-fairs","10":"tag-art-market","11":"tag-arts","12":"tag-arts-and-design","13":"tag-artsanddesign","14":"tag-design","15":"tag-entertainment","16":"tag-frida-kahlo","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}