NEW YORK, NY.- On November 19 and 20, Christie’s Latin American Sale will offer an exceptional selection of over 240 lots by some of the region’s sought after modern and contemporary artists. The two-day sale includes property from several prestigious private and public collections as well a superb offering of paintings and sculpture by such key Latin American artists as Wifredo Lam, Joaquín Torres-García, Sergio Camargo, Jesús Rafael Soto, Fernando Botero, Antonio Berni, Armando Morales, and Beatriz Milhazes.

Two Masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art
Leading the sale will be Rufino Tamayo’s Women Reaching for the Moon (estimate: $1,200,000-1,800,000), which hails from the Cleveland Museum of Art and has been exhibited internationally at such renowned institutions as the Guggenheim Museum in New York, The Phillips Collection in Washington D.C., and Museo Nacional de Arte in Mexico City, among others. La Rosa by Matta (estimate: $250,000-350,000), will also be sold on behalf of the museum and proceeds from both works will benefit future acquisitions.

Brazilian Art
Brazil’s ample field of exceptional artists is represented by one of Sergio Camargo’s dynamic painted wood reliefs, Relief No. 285, 1970 (estimate: $500,000-700,000), a rare kinechromatic work by Abraham Palatnik, Sequencia Visual S-51, c. 1960s (estimate: $100,000-150,000) and Beatriz Milhazes ‘s O casamento (estimate: $600,000-800,000). Painted in 1995, O casamento beautifully captures Milhazes’s singular approach to painting as she mixes popular motifs inspired by carnaval culture with an esthetic simultaneously grounded in a baroque sensibility and the legacy of geometric and gestural abstraction.

From the Collection of Dr. Luiz Bethoven Do Amaral
This brilliantly curated collection highlights works by some of Brazil’s most distinguished artists, including Mulata e pássaros (estimate: $150,000-200,000) by Emiliano Di Cavalcanti, a pioneering figure in the history of Brazilian modernism. Painted in 1967, Mulata e pássaros conveys the artist’s deft use of European vanguard practices while firmly grounded in a Brazilian sensibility. Also featured in the selection is Alfredo Volpi’s Fachada (No. 1342), c. 1970 (estimate: $350,000-450,000), a signature work from the artist’s emblematic series of façades in which he transforms everyday motifs into schematic geometries rendered as modular planes of brightly saturated hues in varying tonalities.

Mexican Art
From the Collection of Estela and Joaquín Shapiro
Collectors, patrons and art dealers, Estela and Joaquín Shapiro amassed a stellar collection of works by such key mid-century Mexican artists as Rodolfo Nieto, Ricardo Martínez, and Juan Soriano. A leading member of the Ruptura generation, Rodolfo Nieto, is well represented with three masterpieces, including Mujer en la tina (estimate: $150,000-200,000), which reflects the Oaxacan native’s bold use of vibrant local colors and simplified geometric figures that recall his familiarity with pre-Columbian sculpture as well as his kinship with fellow Oaxacan and mentor Rufino Tamayo.

Additional Highlights
The Oaxacan master Rufino Tamayo leads the sale with a selection of works that span his prolific career and attests to his role as one of the leading modernists of his generation. In addition to the aforementioned Woman Reaching for the Moon from the Cleveland Museum of Art, the sale includes: Child Playing, 1945 (estimate: $300,000-400,000), from the Los Angeles County Museum of art, sold to benefit the acquisitions of Latin American art, Dos mujeres, 1958 (estimate: $500,000-700,000), and Dos mujeres en rojo, 1978 (estimate: $600,000-800,000). Key works by the legendary Cuban vanguard movement are also included, such as Wifredo Lam’s La rose zombie, 1950 (estimate $500,000-700,000), a syncretic tour de force featuring the artist’s iconic femme cheval figure and Mariano Rodríguez’s Caribbean-infused Natualeza muerta, 1946 (estimate: $150,000-200,000).