The world's largest painting costs 62 million USD

"Journey of Humanity" - the world's largest painting, with an area of 1,579 m2, sold for 62 million USD.

Sacha Jafri introduces the painting. Video: YouTube Sacha Jafri

According to The Value's summary of the highest auctioned artworks in 2021, Sacha Jafri's Journey of Humanity canvas is 10th with $62 million.

Part of the work "Journey of Humanity". Photo: mediaoffice

In early 2020, Sacha Jafri was stuck at Atlantis The Palm hotel in Dubai due to social distancing. The artist came up with the idea of creating paintings showing connection and isolation, in order to raise 30 million USD for poor children. Jafri used social networks to ask children around the world to draw pictures of their experiences during the pandemic and send it to him. The artist then received hundreds of paintings in more than 140 countries, used as ideas for Journey of Humanity.

On CNN, the artist said: "I'm stuck in Dubai and want to create something deep and meaningful. We adults find it difficult because of translation. So imagine a four-year-old child. What will age be like?".

The artist borrowed the hotel's ballroom as a place to create. He uses brushes and drips in a colorful abstract style. The work was completed after 28 weeks, from February to October 2020, using 1,065 brushes and 6,300 liters of paint. On the BBC, Jafri said: "I was in a deep meditative state. I went through all the children's work and drew it subconsciously. There were no sketches. I poured paint and then painted it all. layer after layer, in their own way, until the magic happens."

According to Artnet, bending over the floor to paint for 16-20 hours a day, for seven months, left Jafri injured in the pelvis and foot, requiring spinal surgery. However, the artist did not give up.

Journey of Humanity has a total area of 1,579 square meters. The painting is recorded in the Guinness World Record as the largest canvas work in the world. The author then divided the painting into 70 individually named, numbered, cataloged and framed parts. The painting was first unveiled in February 2021, at the Leila Heller Gallery in Dubai.

At the charity auction event in Dubai on March 24, 2021, the painting was bought by French crypto entrepreneur Andre Abdoune for AED 227,757,000 (about $62 million), more than twice his expectations. painter. The proceeds are used to donate to organizations such as UNESCO, UNICEF..., to help communities affected by Covid-19.

Andre Abdoune told AFP: "I come from a poor family and I know what it feels like to have nothing to eat. But at least I have the love of my parents, the school and the help. The picture is impressive. strong when I see it. For me, it's wrong to take them apart."

The work makes Sacha Jafri the fourth most expensive living painter in the world, after Jeff Koons, David Hockney and Beeple. Painter was born in 1977 in England, has an Indian father, a French mother. Jafri graduated from Eton College, then obtained a Master of Fine Arts from Oxford University. The artist used to donate many works and cash to charity activities.