The panel ‘Dancing Ostriches from Walt Disney’s film ‘Fantasia’, by Paula Rego, was auctioned this Friday in London for 3.5 million euros, a new record for a work by the Portuguese artist, auctioneer Christie’s confirmed.
The final price was 3.065 million pounds (3.54 million euros at current exchange rates), exceeding the established base of 2.2 million pounds (2.5 million euros).
The auction took place this Friday at the night auction of works from the 20th/21st century, where there are 52 lots, with works by artists such as Lucian Freud, Peter Doig, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst, Gerhard Richter, Georg Baselitz , Anselm Kiefer, George Condo, Marlene Dumas and Lucio Fontana.
The artist’s work with the original title “Dancing Ostriches from Walt Disney’s ‘Fantasia'”, executed in two panels, from 1995, is being auctioned for the first time.
Inspired by American director Walt Disney’s film, the “Dancing Ostriches” series was previously part of the Saatchi Collection, created for the Hayward Gallery exhibition “Spellbound: Art and Film”, in 1996, and has been available for the past three years shown regularly. decades.
It was notably exhibited at Tate Liverpool (1997), in the United Kingdom, at the Queen Sofia National Museum (2007-08), in Madrid, Spain, at the Musée de l’Orangerie, in Paris, France (2018-19 ), and at Kestner Gesellschaft, in Hannover, Germany (2022-23).
In writer Agustina Bessa-Luís’ book “As Meninas” (2001, Três Sinais Editores), with illustrations by Paula Rego, the writer believes that “drawing becomes authoritative in Paula’s work [Rego]is grateful that she draws so well and applies her gift to the canvas, which will culminate in the Dancing Ostriches”.
“They are monstrously beautiful. True beauty is monstrous. She leaves the line, stands in the open air, overcomes all barriers, has superhuman elasticity. And suddenly beauty appears, unlimited, pure and monstrous.”described Agustina Bessa-Luís (1922-2019).
Born in Lisbon, Paula Rego started drawing as a child and left for the British capital at the age of 17 to study at the Slade School of Fine Art, where she would settle and stand out for the uniqueness of her work . inspired by literature and characterized for decades by the defense of women’s rights.
In London she met her husband, the English artist Victor Willing, who died in 1988, whose work Paula Rego showed several times in the Casa das Histórias museum.
In 2004, she was elevated to the Grand Cross of the Military Order of Sant’Iago da Espada de Portugal by the President of the Republic, Jorge Sampaio, and in 2010 she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire by the British Kroon, for her contribution to the arts. In 2016 he received the Medal of Honor from the City of Lisbon.
In 2019, the painter received the Medal of Cultural Merit from the Ministry of Culture.
Paula Rego died on June 8, 2022 in London, leaving behind a work that is represented in several of the most important public and private collections around the world.
Source: DN
