SG MAG AUG 2019 MAIN_1

Artprice published its report for the first half of this year. The report is reprinted in the next few
pages for your convenience. You can also check it out on their website at https://www.artprice.com/
artprice-reports/global-art-market-in-h1-2019-by-artprice-com. This website has excellent content.
The main takeaway is the stronger demand for Contemporary art than in the same period in 2018.
This was despite an overall contraction in the market $6.98 billion down 17.4% versus H1 2018. You should
check out the full report for a more meaningful understanding of the numbers.
This increased demand is important for the extremely limited Cosmic X art of Jack Armstrong. Prior to the
report, he increased the prices of his art in a very dramatic fashion. He also totally realigned his prices,
increasing one of his signature paintings, ‘Warhol Naked’, his tribute to his erstwhile friend Warhol, who
called him the Last Wizard of Art, to the lofty price of $110 million. It is a unique and most striking tribute
painting to his friend and is featured on the front cover of our limited edition magazine “Cosmic 100”.
These dramatic price increases may appear crazy to some given that there is no published price
history as all sales, to date, have been private. The secondary market will soon evolve at which time
collectors and investors in his art will be sitting on a fortune as the established art world scrambles to get
hold of any of Armstrong’s 100 Cosmic paintings. The ongoing quality promotion by Star Global, In
particular our New York’s, Times Square digital retrospective now going into its 2nd year, is a catalyst to
higher asking prices. No living artist has ever had this consistent high level of publicity and exposure. You
can always make an offer although my guess is he is saving this masterpiece for his dream of his own
museum. “You can always remake the money but you can never remake the art.”
This idea of the digital retrospective was conceived and produced by Iain Hammer who is the marketing
genius behind the promotion. Iain says, “This is very much in line with our out of the box approach for
promoting the art of this artist who has stood out against the bad practices of some top galleries and
auction houses naming them the “Art Cartel”. Iain also produced the first compendium of Armstrong’s
entire 100 paintings. This Limited Edition 1000 series magazine is the first reference book showing all his
work in one published document and features “Warhol Naked” on the front cover.
We are always happy to answer any questions you may have and we do have instructions on two
paintings from one of the collectors. The first public sale will make art history as well as a fortune for the
buyer. The sky is the limit.
This art is better than gold and the reason we have returned the golden cover to our magazine.
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