By Carter B. Horsley

This evening's auction of Latin American Art at Sotheby's is highlighted by a major work by Leonora Carrington (b. 1917), several good works by Matta and a very nice painting by Diego Rivera.

The Carrington is Lot 10. It is entitled "Chiki Ton Pays" and is a tempera and ink on canvas that measures 35 1/4 by 35 1/2 inches. It was executed in 1944. It has an estimate of $1,200,000 to $1,800,000. It failed to sell and was passed at $1,050,000. The painting, which is large for her oeuvre and full of her Boschian penchants has been requested for an exhibition on Carrington and Remedios Varo and Kati Horna in 2010 at the Pallant House Gallery in Chicester and the Sansbury Centre for Visual Arts in Norwich, England.

The catalogue provides the following commentary:

"When Leonora Carrington met her future husband Chiki Weisz in 1944, she had already packed more adventures into her 27 years than most people would fit into five lifetimes. Behind her was an upper middle class Catholic childhood in Lancashire in the north of England; the scandal of an elopement, aged just twenty, with the Surrealist Max Ernst, who was more than twice her age and already married; then a searing break with him, while he was incarcerated in a labour camp; a hair-raising drive across the Pyrenees; a spell of confinement in a Spanish lunatic asylum; a first marriage to a Mexican diplomat to whom she had originally been intrpduced by Pablo Picasso; and a voyage across the Atlantic to freedom, as she puts it, both the Nazis and her family. Of the two, she is fond of saying, her family was definitely the worst. After a spell in New York, Leonora and her first husband Renato Leduc headed south to his homeland, Mexico, in search of a new life. But it was a new life that was not to be: after a few months, the couple were to go their separate ways, albeit amicably. One evening in a bar in Mexico City, Leonora met Chiki. His real name was Emerico and, a few years older than Leonora, he had been born and raised in Hungary before becoming a photographer, and the partner of fellow photojournalist Robert Capa. A Jew, he had lot almost his entire family to the Holocaust - and like many other artists and writers from Europe, he had been drawn to Mexico becuase of the country's open-door policy to refugees. Both Leonora and Chiki were a long way from home, and both were entirely without family support. Together, in Mexico City, they gathered a subsitute family around them: an inner circle that consisted of other European artists and writers. These included the Spanish painter, Remedios Varos and her poet husband and Benjamin Peret; Kati Horna, another Hungarian photographer, and her hubsand Jose Horna, a Spanish sculptor and the painter Esteban Frances....Others in their set included the Surrealist filmmaker Luis Bunel and Wolfgang Paalen and his wife, the French painter Alice Rahon. They were an intoxicating mix: lively and spirited, supportive and tight-knit, intellectual and tallented. Around them, beyond their immediate circle, was the wide world of home-grown Mexican art, itself in the throes of a fascinating period, with artists like Rufino Tamayo, Mario Izquierdo and Gunther Gerzso providing an alternative visial to the Social Realist muralists Diego Rivera, Daivd Alfaro Siqueiros and Jose Clemente Orozco."

Lot 111 is a very attractive and delicate abstraction entitled "Le Giure" by Alice Rahon (1916-1987). An oil on canvas, it measures 13 1/2 by 47 1/4 inches and was created in 1945. It has a modest estimate of $18,000 to $22,000. It sold for $18,750 including the buyer's premium as do all results mentioned in this article.

Carmine Melian, the specialist in charge of the auction, noted that many 19th Century works fared quite well in this auction. Lot 42, "Procession de la Virgen, by Edouard-Henri-Theophile Pingret, sold for $278,500, a record for the artist.

Lot 113 is an excellent gouache and graphite on paper by Remedios Varo entitled "Primavera, Las Cuatro Estaciones." It measures 9 3/4 by 10 5/8 inches and was executed in 1943-4. It has a modest estimate of $18,000 to $22,000. It sold for $21,250.

Lot 5 is a large, pleasant painting by Wilfredo Lam ( 1902-1982) of a nude woman in a chair in a pale palette and a Picassoesque style. A tempera on paper laid down on canvas, it measures 65 by 38 1/2 inches and was executed in 1942. It has an estimate of $500,000 to $600,000. It passed at $400,000. It has been widely exhibited and published.

Another more traditional Lam is Lot 13, an untitled oil on canvas that measures 50 3/4 by 38 1/2 inches. Executed in 1959, It has an ambitious estimate of $450,000 to $550,000, perhaps because the large white section in the lower right corner is painted white but looks unfinished. It was passed at $400,000.

Diego Rivera (1886-1957) was one of the giants of the enormously influential group of Mexican muralists who sought to capture their country's history and spirit. Rivera was given a one-man exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1929 and apart from his murals many of the subjects of his paintings were children of people who worked in his house or those of his friends. This lot has an estimate of $350,000 to $450,000. It sold for $794,500.

A much smaller but more attractive work by Rivera is Lot 15, "Danzante," a watercolor on rice paper that measures 15 by 10 3/4 inches. It had an estimate of $40,000 to $50,000.It sold for $40,625 including the buyer's premium as do all results mentioned in this article. The auction sold 75 percent of the 56 offered lots in the evening auction for a total of about $6,740,000. The pre-sale estimate of $7,500,000 to $10,128,000.

There are several good works by Matta (1911-2002), a leading Surrealist. Lot 118 is a lush, untitled oil on canvas that was executed circa 1952 and is an on oil on canvas that measures 26 by 30 1/8 inches. It has a very modest estimate of $35,000 to $45,000. It sold for $68,500.

Lot 12 is a large untitled abstraction with a cool palette by Matta (1911-2002). An oil on canvas, it measures 79 3/8 by 88 5/8 inches and was executed circa 1958. It has an estimate of $150,000 to $200,000. It sold for $206,500.

Lot 47 is a very large oil and mixed media on canvas that Matta executed in 1989. Entitled "Oeurope Meme," it measures 82 1/8 by 114 3/4 inches. It has a modest estimate of $80,000 to $120,000. It sold for $242,500.

Lot 127 is a charming oil on paper laid down on wood entitled "The Thief on the Roof" by Fernando Botero (b. 1933). It measures 13 3/8 by 15 7/8 inches and is dated 1980. It has a modest estimate of $60,000 to $80,000. It sold for $134,500.

Lot 119 is a good oil and sand on canvas by Rufino Tamayo (1899-1991). It measures 14 by 23 3/4 inches and was painted in 1970. It is one of several works in this auction consigned by the Los Angles County Museum of Art and sold to benefit acquisitions of Latin American Art. It has a modest estimate of $90,000 to $120,000. It sold for $98,500.

Lot 21 is a dark but impressive oil on cardboard laid down on styrofoam by Joaquin Torres-Garcia (1874-1949). It measures 30 5/8 by 39 1/8 inches and is dated 1942. It has an estimate of $450,000 to $650,000. It sold for $626,500.

Lot 98 is an excellent untitled study for a mural by David Alfaro Siqueiros (1896-1974). An oil and gouache on paper laid down on wood, it measures 25 5/8 by 19 3/4 inches. Executed in 1968, it has a modest estimate of $15,000 to $20,000. It sold for $15,000.

Lot 102 is a fine gouache and ink on paper by Francisco Toledo (b. 1940). Entitled "Hombre y Pescado," it measures 12 1/2 by 19 inches and was painted circa 1967. It has a modest estimate of $12,000 to $18,000. It sold for $23,750.

Lot 191 is an abstraction entitled "Mar de Lurin, Estudio," by Fernando de Szyszlo (b. 1925). An oil on canvas, it measures 55 3/4 by 31 1/2 inches and was created in 1989. It has a modest estimate of $18,000 to $22,000. It sold for $15,000.

Lot 34 is a large and dramatic abstraction by Gunther Gerzso (1915-2000). Entitled "Avila Negra," it is an oil and sand on canvas that measures 57 1/8 by 38 1/8 inches. It is dated 1961. It has a modest estimate of $90,000 to $120,000. It sold for $104,500.

Lot 27 is fine stainless steel sculpture by Gego (Gertrudis Goldschmidt) (1912-1994). It measures 19 3/4 by 18 by 17 inches. It has an estimate of $40,000 to $60,000. It sold for $194,500.

One of the loveliest works in the auction is Lot 187, "Cabeza #2," by Alirio Palacios (b. 1938). It is a watercolor and crayon on handmade cardboard and measures 57 by 31 1/8 inches. It was created in 2002. It has an interesting texture and is reminiscent of great Italian Renaissance portraits of young ladies. It has a modest estimate of $15,000 to $20,000. It sold for $25,000, a record for the artist.

The total for the evening and day sales was $9,422,625 with 64.3 percent of the offered lots selling.

Lot 26, "Formas Continuas," by Enio Iommi, sold for $43,750, a record for the artist.

Lot 29, "Sin Titulo," by Mercedes Pardo, sold for $53,125, a record for the artist.

Lot 41, "La Madre Santissima de La Luz," by Andreas Lopez, sold for $50,000, a record for the artist.

Lot 153, untitled, by Lidya Buzio, sold for $10,000, a record for the artist.

Lot 171, untitled, by Elsa Gramcko, sold for $25,000, a record for the artist.

Lot 177, "Sarten IV," by Ronald Moran, sold for $10,000, a record for the artist.

Lot 180, untitled, by Mauro Piva, sold for $7,500, a record for the artist.

Lot 185, "Heaven," by Rene Francisco (Rodriguez), sold for $18,750, a record for the artist.

Lot 188, "Floreciente (Fleurissante)," by Oswaldo Vigas, sold for $56,250, a record for the artist.

Lot 212, "Ofrendas - LXVII," by Jose Antonio Davila, sold for $25,000, a record for the artist.

Lot 215, "Pareja," by Enrique Grau, sold for $43,750, a record for the artist.

Lot 219, "Paisaje Jugoso con Caballo I," by Irene Sierra Carreno, for $53,125, a record for the artist.