NEW YORK.- Matta’s work Watchman, What of the Night?, 1968, sold for $990,400 at Christie’s Latin American Art sale. Fernando Botero’s Junta Militar, 1973, sold for $912,000. Virgilio Garza, Head of the Latin American Art department commented: “The sale of Latin American Art, represented artists from fifteen countries and performed solidly throughout. With the excellent results achieved for Fernando Botero Christie’s again firmly cemented Botero’s international reputation and appeal. The appearance of this exceptional group of Botero paintings and sculpture was widely recognized by the audience as a rare occasion to acquire work by one of the greatest living Latin American artists. Another highlight of the night was Matta’s haunting mural Watchman, What of the night? consigned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art to Benefit the Acquisitions Fund which fetched $990,400. Ten world auction records were set including for Jesus Rafael Soto, Candido Portinari and Mira Schendel.”

One of the main eye-catchers of the sale, both in size and reputation, is Matta’s formidable Watchman, What of the Night?, 1961. Throughout a career that spanned more than 7 decades, Matta employed painting as a means to express the mind’s inner universe. His intellectual sharpness and fierce imagination were crucial to the generation of New York’s Abstract Expressionists emerging in the 1940’s. It is during that decade that Matta embarks upon large scale paintings. Painted in 1961, the present work exemplifies the continuation of his working with grand surfaces. Watchman, What of the Night? is an epic mural that marries Matta’s vocabulary of abstract forms and fluid shapes in explosive yellows, greens and reds. Once in the collection of the famous Athenian art dealer Alexander Iolas in whose bedroom the work proudly hung, the painting is being offered for sale by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

For Fernando Botero - recently in the news with the unveiling of his Abu Ghraib series – the theme of military regimes and their use of power has made appearances in his work during his entire career. Less overt in its _expression of unrest but reflecting a clear interest in the military as a subject-matter is Junta Militar, a painting Botero executed in 1973 and the cover lot of the sale. At first glance the work is a signature Botero - full figures in bright, flat colors – but a second reading evokes the kernel of his developing fascination with the military and on a more emotional level, issues such as loss, sadness and nostalgia. Junta Militar exudes a slightly unsettling atmosphere and in its mild, almost deceiving way, it is a milestone on the artist’s road to uncovering the many layers of society’s dehumanization which often occurs at the hands of politicians and generals.

Extremely unusual and reflective of a very imaginative and wistful collecting approach, a second Botero lot in the sale will offer two paintings by the artist, at the explicit request of the collectors, Mr. and Mrs. Mackenzie Gordon. Art history itself provides the reason for this unique gesture: one painting is Botero’s portrait of the illustrious Arnolfini couple, after Jan van Eyck; the second one is a painting of a French poodle. Since the original van Eyck painting represents the Arnolfinis with their dog and the Botero variation omits the dog, French Poodle is offered withLos Arnolfini to reflect the van Eyck scene in the most faithful of ways. The two paintings are estimated to reach between $550,000 and $650,000. Botero’s La Poupée, a brown patinated bronze from 1977..

An absolutely splendid portrait by Diego Rivera, depicting José Antonio del Pozo, shows Rivera at the height of his powers. The work belongs to the series of commissioned portraits Rivera did of the youngest members of Mexico’s intellectual and business elite. The 1955 portrait features the twelve-year old son of the General Secretary of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and the work is inscribed elaborately by Rivera, a practice reminiscent of Renaissance portraits. The artistic as well as allegorical power of the painting is stunning – symbols of childhood and maturity, death and life blend in this fabulous retrato. The work is part of the National Heritage of Mexico and will have to remain in the country.

A superb reflection of Rufino Tamayo’s exquisite treatment of the child in his paintings is Girl with Yellow Flowers, 1946, from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The present painting opened a new chapter in Tamayo’s dealing with the subject, as he abandoned traces of shyness and opened up his work to vibrate with vitality and joy. Girl with Yellow Flowers evokes an exterior impressionist scene, bathed in sunlight and displaying a lighthearted play of lights and shadows. Also by Tamayo are Dos Personajes en un interior, 1970, depicting a mysterious realm of warm and luminous color; and Imagen en el Espejo, 1961.