Marlene Dumas Sets New Auction Record for Living Female Artist with $13.6 Million Sale

A painting by South African artist Marlene Dumas has made headlines by selling for an impressive $13.6 million at auction — the highest price ever paid for a work by a living female artist.

The piece, titled Miss January, is a monumental 9.25-foot-tall (2.82 meters) painting that Christie’s auction house describes as Dumas’ “magnum opus.” The sale took place on Wednesday, exceeding expectations and making waves in the art world.

Isabella Lauria, head of Christie’s 21st-century evening sale, expressed excitement about the result. “We were thrilled with the outcome of our sale this evening,” she said. “The price is incredible.”

Before the auction, Christie’s had estimated the painting would fetch between $12 million and $18 million. Sara Friedlander, Christie’s deputy chairman of post-war and contemporary art, praised Miss January as a powerful work that challenges traditional views of the female body.

“Through its monumental scale and singular subject matter, Miss January is truly the magnum opus of Marlene Dumas,” Friedlander said. She added that the painting “upends normalized concepts of the female nude through the lens of a male-centric history,” highlighting Dumas’ skillful and provocative artistry.

Painted in 1997, Miss January revisits an earlier work by Dumas called Miss World, which she created 30 years prior when she was just 10 years old. Today, Dumas is recognized globally as one of the most influential contemporary painters. Christie’s describes her work as emotionally charged portraits that explore complex themes like sexuality, race, grief, motherhood, and the human body, often inspired by found photographs.

Despite this record-breaking sale, a significant gender gap remains in the art market. Male artists’ works typically sell for far higher amounts. For example, on the same night, a 1982 triple portrait by Jean-Michel Basquiat titled Baby Boom sold for $23.4 million. The record for the most expensive artwork by a living male artist is still held by Jeff Koons’ Rabbit sculpture, which sold for $90.3 million in 2019.

This disparity is part of a larger systemic issue. A 2022 BBC documentary titled Recalculating Art found that works by female artists sell for only about 10% of the value of those by male artists, highlighting ongoing challenges in achieving equality in the art world.