Wifredo Lam's 1970 "Les Abalochas Dansent Pour Dhambala, dieu l’unité," est. $1.75M-$2.25M at Sotheby's. Photo: Courtesy Sotheby's

By Mackie Healy, Art Market Views Contributor

Christie’s and Sotheby’s Latin American art sales this week are slated to tally over $50 million. There is the usual array of Botero fatties (19 in the evening sales!), plus rare Surrealist canvases, Colonial portraiture and kinetic and other optical teasers from the 1960s and 1970s. Sales rev up tonight at Sotheby’s.

New York’s Latin American auction revenues have increased over the past five years. Sotheby’s day and evening sales are projected to total up to $27 million for 261 lots, up from $15.5 million in Nov. 2005. Christie’s may see as much as $26 million realized from sales in the coming days, up from $11.5 million total in 2005.

The action commences tonight at Sotheby’s, with a collection of works from an Aspen collector, tagged to sell for up to $3.8 million.

The sale’s projected priciest work is Cuban Surrealist Wifredo Lam’s jumpy Las Abalochas dansent pour Dhambala, Dieu de L’Unite (1970), tagged to fetch $1.75 million to $2.25 million, which if achieved, would set a new auction record for the artist. (Lam’s current auction record – $1.4 million for Sur les traces (Transformation) was set at Sotheby’s in May.)

The eight-foot wide canvas depicts contorted, dancing, horse and human figures, inspired by Lam’s interest in Caribbean voodoo and African sculpture. The work once adorned in the artist’s living room.

Christie’s Nov. 17 and Nov. 18 sales include 325 lots, representing artists from 14 countries. It is expected to make as much as $26 million. Colombian painter Fernando Botero’s witty, cross-eyed Family Scene (1932) leads the sale. Expected to fetch $1 – $1.5 million, the portrait features a family of portly bullfighters cloaked in matador regalia. Even the youngest member, crawling clad in a child-sized-embroidered suit and red tie, is poised to enter the family business before he can walk.

Fernando Botero's 1985 "Family Scene," est. $1M-$1.5M at Christie's. Photo: Christie's Images LTD. 2010

Also of note is the Surrealist Matta’s Untitled canvas from 1942. The dynamic grey work portrays the volcanic eruption Matta witnessed on vacation in Mexico during the summer of 1941. (Matta’s protege, Abstract Expressionist painter Robert Motherwell, accompanied on the trek.) The work is estimated to sell for $800,000 – $1.2 million.

Matta's 1942 "Untitled," est. $800K-$1.2M at Christie's. Photo: Christie's Images LTD. 2010

Stay tuned to Art Market Views for auction results.