Judit Reigl’s painting sets new Hungarian record

Judit Reigl’s painting sold for a record price of EUR 411,000 at the Sothesby’s auction in Paris. This is the highest price for which a living Hungarian or Hungarian-born artist’s work has even been sold, nol.hu reports.  

The 1955 painting is part of her Outburst series. These paintings are her most sought after works because many consider them artistic premonitions for the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. The previous Hungarian record was held by a painting from this series as well; this was sold last December in Paris for EUR 315,000.

According to nol.hu, another one of Reigl’s paintings was up for sale at an auction in London as well. The piece belonging to the Guanos series was sold for the third highest price, overtaken by two Russian artists, Vitalij Komar and Alexander Melamid. Experts say that the Reigl-painting could have done better had the two auctions not been held on the same day. Those interested in her work focused on the Paris auction, where the painting appeared among paintings of internationally acclaimed artists like Yves Klein and Jean-Michel Basquiat.

The Paris auction also featured three paintings of the Hungarian-born Simon Hantai, who died in Paris in 2008. The most successful painting sold for EUR 555,000, and Hantai holds the record for the most expensive Hungarian painting ever auctioned with M.A. 5 (Mariale), which sold for EUR 2.46 million.

Reigl and Hantai probably knew each other. Reigl’s first exhibition in Paris in 1954 was opened by André Breton, the founder of Surrealism, whom she met through Hantai. Reigl was born in 1923 in Hungary and emigrated to France in 1950 to escape the Communist rule, which did not allow her the artistic freedom needed.

Photo: sothesbys.com

Copy editor: bm

Source: nol.hu; wikipedia.org