The present work was originally acquired by renowned collector, Natasha Gelman, who with her husband, Jacques, assembled one of the finest collections of twentieth century European and Mexican art in the world, much of which is now part of the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Their fortune was built primarily from Mr. Gelman’s wildly successful Mexican movie business, which led the couple to develop close friendships with artists like Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera.

Mrs. Gelman’s passion for art continued throughout her life, resulting in acquisitions like the present lot that stems from Francis Alÿs' prominent ‘Sign Painting Project’, conducted in Mexico between 1993 and 1997. The project, a collaborative exercise between Alÿs and professional billboard-painters, including Juan Garcia, Enrique Huerta and Emilio Rivera, borrowed directly ‘from street advertisements encountered in my neighbourhood in the Centro Histórico. These metal sheets painted by sign painters are propped on sidewalks or hung over storefronts and we are immediately seduced by the communicative power of their iconography' (Francis Alÿs, quoted in, Theodora Vischer, eds., Francis Alÿs: Sign Painting Project with Juan García, Emilio Rivera, Enrique Huerta, 2011, p.7). Alÿs brought the billboard-painters, known as rotulistas, some of his small-format oil paintings and asked them if they would copy and expand his motifs. These works explore the themes of authorship and originality. As an underlying purpose of the collaborative effort, Alÿs sought to challenge the idea of the painting as a unique object.