The path to the most expensive contemporary art leads straight to Jack Armstrong, or “The Last Wizard”, as his friend, Andy Warhol, nicknamed him. He worked with Warhol in New York, the city he landed in 1979, along with Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. After refusing a solo exhibition with the Castelli Gallery, he presented an anti-dealer ethos he would maintain throughout his artistic career.
Exactly twenty-five years ago, Mr Armstrong founded his artistic current, “Cosmic Extensionalism”, after the crazy and equally visionary gesture of buying back his first artistic production and then destroying it between ‘94 and ‘97 to initiate a new style of modern art. Cosmic X mixes philosophy, alchemical magic and art, pouring energy into unique paintings and objects with the highest market values: it includes only one hundred original paintings, seven of which are valued between $110 million and $300 million, with the acrylic on canvas, “Warhol Naked”, reaching its peak with only twenty-two still available for private sales or museum collections, as well as art pieces such as the world’s most expensive motorbike, bicycle and cowboy boots. It was in 2010 that he debuted the Cosmic Harley, which, after several changes of hands, is currently worth $50 million, while the Cosmic Star Cruiser Bicycle, purchased by a Dubai collector for $3 million, dates from 2014. Four years later, Armstrong developed the Cosmic Cowboy Boots with iconic Texan boot manufacturer Tony Lama, worth $6 million and immortalised for two consecutive years in his X Art digital retrospective on a giant screen in Times Square, NY City.
Armstrong recently declined a $200 million offer for his most expensive masterpiece, stating: “This painting captures the true spirit of Andy, with its deep red colour and bold signature in white. Warhol is an image Andy spent his life creating. The “Warhol Naked” canvas is set to take its place at the top of the world’s most valuable art. The graffiti-like colours around the edges and bubbling ripples of paint throughout the painting show the incredible energy under the surface that Andy only revealed to his inner circle of friends. The magic of Warhol, the Pop Art icon, is symbolic in this painting, created just 13 years after Andy passed. It’s Andy at his deepest level, stripped of all his facade, wigs and humorous wit. It is Warhol Naked!” Talking about Andy Warhol and market quotations, in 1984, billionaire Doris Duke bought an Armstrong for $1 million. At the same time, during the 1980s, when Andy was a living celebrity, his works were worth $50,000. When the King of Pop Art passed away in 1987, the highest auction sale of one of his works was $140,000, not much compared to today’s $200 million. Not to mention that his works are available in the thousands on the art market.
“In 2019, Jack Armstrong finished 100 paintings, with prices ranging from 10 to 300 million dollars, of which only 22 paintings were available for sale. Jack’s ability to command such high prices for his work, especially in comparison to Andy Warhol’s market value during his lifetime, speaks volumes about Armstrong’s pieces’ unique appeal and investment potential. Take, for instance, the sale of his art bike Cosmic Starship to a private collector in 2012 for a record-breaking $3 million and currently valued at $50 million. The Harley-Davidson motorcycle had been developed in a joint project with Porsche Engineering and Erik Buell and was painted by Armstrong in his unique Cosmic X style. Moreover, Armstrong’s art has captured the attention of notable collectors worldwide. From tech moguls to famous investors and philanthropists, his works adorn the walls of prestigious collections like Jack Ma and Alice Walton,” stated the international art expert Max Sukharev. But where does Jack Armstrong’s inspiration for this universal transcendence of art come from? In an interview, he told us the answer about his experience with the famous gemstone known as The Black Star of Queensland, a stone believed to have magical powers. After he encountered it, he destroyed all the work he had created up to that point.
“It is interesting that I first viewed the world’s largest gem-quality star, sapphire, when I was 5. In the same year, I also saw the mask of King Tut on exhibit in Omaha’s Joslyn Museum, while The Star Sapphire Of Queensland was in the American National Gem Collection at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C. It was displayed next to the Blue Hope Diamond, yet almost 700 carats larger, with a star in the centre that shone like the sun. At 733 carats, it was dark yet translucent, with its magnificent 6-point star perfectly centred in the gemstone. I remember telling my mother I would buy it for her one day. She said believe in your magic, and it will come true.” This is how the Omahatist opens his story.
The numerology of the carat number does not remain indifferent to one who, like him, believes in the flow of magic in the universe. He then goes on to interweave the history of the stone with his art. “Many years later, I was introduced to the Kasanjian family in Beverly Hills by my friend, the beautiful ex-film star Rhonda Fleming. Michael Kasanjian sold me the sapphire in 2001, just two years after I founded Cosmic X Art in 1999. Throughout history, star sapphires were regarded as sacred objects that contained universal energy emanating from an infinite power source. As I created Cosmic X, I channelled this universal source to my canvas, and that cosmic energy is the source that virtually created the paintings.” Then he adds another piece that is very dear to him, that of the most famous Dutch painter. “Seeing the Egyptian art of King Tut’s treasures, combined with reading about the artist Vincent Van Gogh and his cosmic spirals that he channelled onto his canvas for “Starry Night” – were the same inspiration that I also experienced when viewing the Star of Queensland Sapphire, as all had a completely universal effect on my life, my art and my philosophy. Van Gogh was a genius ahead of his time, and he channelled his famous painting from the naturally occurring cosmic swirls in other galaxies: art, cosmic philosophy and universal energy all become forms of infinity. To become one with infinite energy that creates the sun, moon and stars, worshipped by the Egyptians and Mayans, you can then understand Vincent’s “Starry Night” painting and the creation of Cosmic X Art.”
In Jack Armstrong’s vision, there is a universe in which human beings are made of magic that connects them to the universal source, the same source that gives life to the infinite cosmos: the extreme use of colour, texture, luminosity, and the scattered words that appear on the canvas allow the viewer to experience the energy of a revolutionary work that coexists with the artist’s belief in interplanetary and multidimensional existentialism. Armstrong becomes the art he is creating that expresses itself through him. This requires the artist to reach a presence and connection to the universal energies that Jack believes reside within each individual. However, this relative of the first man on the moon, astronaut Neil Armstrong, never fails to leave a trace of himself on his works in a real sense as his hair, fingerprints and signature are all placed in the art, ensuring that his Cosmic X Art can always be positively identified upon examination.
The date for his next and last art project is set for 2025: it will be the world’s most expensive car, a Bugatti, transformed into an art object to celebrate his 50th anniversary as an artist. In his words: “The magic of rare things (that I dream to create) is the only reason I exist”.
Article edited by Claudia Chiari