New York – In a landmark result for Christie’s, the South African artist Marlene Dumas has claimed the auction record for a living female artist. Her 1997 painting, Miss January, achieved $13.6m with fees at Christie’s 21st Century Evening Sale. The striking work, consigned from the prestigious Rubell Family Collection, comfortably exceeded the $12–18m estimate, surpassing previous records.
The competitive bidding opened at $9 million before settling at $11.5m (before fees), drawing applause from the salesroom. Secured by a guarantor through Christie’s deputy chairman Sara Friedlander, the sale marks a significant milestone for Dumas, whose previous auction high stood at $6.3m for The Visitor (1995). The result eclipses Saville’s Propped (1992), which sold for £9.5 million ($12.4 million) at Sotheby’s London six years ago.
Miss January represents a decisive full-circle moment in Dumas’ career, revisiting themes from her earliest known childhood drawing, Miss World, created when she was just ten. The title also references her seminal 1992 retrospective, Miss Interpreted at Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum, and her 1988 work Misinterpreted, often considered a self-portrait.
Christie’s described the painting as Dumas’ defining achievement: “Through its monumental scale and profound subject matter, Miss January demonstrates her mastery in reclaiming the female form from traditional objectification. It represents a pivotal moment in contemporary painting.”
The sale reinforces Dumas’ position in the upper echelons of the art market. Seven of her top ten auction results have exceeded high estimates, with six sales occurring in New York. However, market analysis shows selective collector engagement – of the 15 Dumas works sold at auction between 2022 and 2024, only five surpassed $1 million, with just two exceeding expectations after fees.
The Rubell Family’s decision to deaccession this work reflects their ongoing commitment to refreshing their collection to support midcareer and emerging artists. This record-breaking sale confirms her strong influence and market appeal as institutions worldwide continue to acquire Dumas’ work, with representation in major museums from MoMa to Tate Modern.
The result rewrites auction history and reaffirms Dumas’ status as one of the most critical and transformative painters working today, whose psychologically charged portraits continue to challenge and intrigue the art community.
Miss January by Marlene Dumas was a leading highlight of the 21st Century Evening Sale on Wednesday, May 14, at Rockefeller Centre in New York City. Miss January is the most significant work from Marlene Dumas to ever appear at auction. Carrying an estimate of $12 million – $18 million, it is poised to set the highest price at auction for an artwork by a living female artist.
The work comes to Christie’s from the Rubell Family Collection, among the most distinguished private collections of contemporary art worldwide. The Rubell family is parting with its prized Marlene Dumas painting, Miss January, to continue its mission of collecting and championing emerging artists. Sara Friedlander, Deputy Chairman, Post-War and Contemporary Art, Christie’s, remarks: “Through its monumental scale and singular subject matter, Miss January is truly the magnum opus of Marlene Dumas. In this painting, Dumas triumphantly demonstrates a formal mastery of the woman’s body while simultaneously freeing it from a tradition of subjection, upending normalised concepts of the female nude through the lens of a male-centric history. We are honoured to offer Miss January as a leading highlight during our Marquee Week this spring.”
Dumas is known for her emotionally charged, psychologically complex portraits—often based on found photographs—which explore themes of sexuality, race, grief, motherhood, and the body. She investigates exposure versus concealment, with a practice that balances the tendency to reveal and the inclination to conceal. Painted in 1997, Miss January shows Dumas revisiting her very first known drawing, Miss World, executed thirty years earlier when she was just ten years old. Depicting ten idealised forms of glamorous models, the work clearly foreshadowed the artist’s lifelong fascination with the female figure.
The title also heralds Dumas’s first survey exhibition, Miss Interpreted, which took place at the Stedelijk in 1992, and her 1988 painting Misinterpreted, often considered a self-portrait. Dumas is recognized widely among the most influential painters today, with work included in the permanent collections of Art Institute of Chicago; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Fondation Beyeler, Basel; Gemeentemuseum, The Hague; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo; Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; and Tate, United Kingdom. Since 2008, she has held major institutional retrospectives at Palazzo Grassi, Venice, the Musée d’Orsay, Paris, the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Tate Modern, London, the Fondation Beyeler, Basel, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. — Reported for Artlyst
Top Photo: Auctioneer Yü-Ge Wang sells Miss January by Marlene Dumas for $13.6 million at Christie’s