Rufino Tamayo's Woman Reaching for the Moon (1946), estimated at $1.2m-1.8m, is the headline lot of a sale of Latin American Art at Christie's New York on November 19-20.
 Woman Reaching for the Moon was bought by the Cleveland Museum of Art in 1947 |
Tamayo (1899-1991) was a Mexican painter who is best known for his abstract figurative works that contain seeds of both pre-Hispanic and contemporary art.
Woman Reaching for the Moon is considered one of his finest works, evoking the kindling of the dreams of space that would define American society in the following decades.
Another work by Rufino Tamayo, Dos Mujeros En Rujos (1978), features in the auction with a valuation of $600,000-800,000.
A sale at Christie's in 2008 saw Tamayo's Trovador reach $7.2m - a record price for a work by a Latin American artist.
Beatrice Milhazes' O Casamento carries an identical estimate of $600,000-800,000.
 Milhazes is one of Latin America's most succesful contemporary artists |
Born in 1960, the Brazilian artist creates geometric paintings that feature the visual motifs of swatches of fabric, wallpaper and embroidery - a riot of colour and texture that calls to mind the carnival culture of her nation.
Milhazes work has seen an impressive rise in value in recent years with O Elephant Azule, her biggest selling work to date, achieving £937,250 ($1.5m) at Christie's London last year.
Wilfredo Lam's La Rose Zombie (1950) features a depiction of the femme cheval or horse-headed woman - the personification of a ritual in the Afro-Cuban religion of Santeria and a theme that the Cuban born Lam (1902-1982) would return to many times throughout his career. The painting is valued at $500,000-700,000.
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