Since 2002 and the invasion of Afghanistan, James Cauty has been designing and making stamps as artworks in response to world events. On 9th September 2007 he handed over the position of chief stamp designer for the Cautese Nationál Postal Disservice (C.N.P.D.) to East European art labourer Filip Filkovic and declared “War Is Over! Al Qaeda – 1, USA - 0"

To commemorate this event, Cauty has remixed some of his finest images created during the war into what he calls ‘reverse engineered’ mixed media collage works and oil paintings. Also to be exhibited for the first time ever, the CNPD specialists have developed the ‘most meaningful black in the world’. At £664.41 per square inch, it will also be the most expensive black, making the 6ft x 6ft painting the costliest depiction of a stamp in the world, with an estimated price in the region of £2.37 million. A consortium of investors has already shown interest in buying the most expensive painting of a stamp, but if the painting fails to sell by Christmas Day 2007, it will be destroyed. The Aquarium will also be giving away for FREE yes FREE stuff at the private view.

“James Cauty subverts and decodes our reality through iconoclastic strategies and re-ordered cultural histories” The C.N.P.D. Postmaster General

“The quickest way to end a war is to lose it” George Orwell

C.N.P.D. BLACK

C.N.P.D. Art specialists and Master Artist James Cauty are currently working on the development of C.N.P.D. BLACK, a new colour that will be used exclusively for the reverse engineered painting of the infamous BLACKMAIL STAMP.

The BLACKMAIL STAMP (signed edition of two) was offered for sale in the first C.N.P.D. stamp catalogue in 2005 for £2,000 000 cash, non negotiable in used notes. It was initially cull immune but having failed to sell, both prints were destroyed in the Mass Extinction Cull.

The reverse engineered painting is being made as part of James Cauty’s forthcoming show “War Is Over!” and is to commemorate the end of war and suffering. Given the nature of its meaning the C.N.P.D. art specialists have promised that although C.N.P.D. BLACK will not be the blackest black in the world it will be the most meaningful. And at £664.41 per square inch it will also be the most expensive, making the final 6ft x 6ft painting the most expensive painting of a stamp in the world with an estimate price in the region of £2.37 million. A consortium of investors have already shown an interest, but if the painting fails to sell by the end of the exhibition on Christmas day 2007 it will be destroyed.

Update: There will only one painting ever made using C.N.P.D. BLACK. Any studies, test pieces and superfluous pigment will be destroyed once the final piece is completed. The area of BLACK on the painting of the C.N.P.D BLACKMAIL stamp is 3636 square inches and the painting will cost a little over the estimate at £2,415 794 and 76p. The rest of the painting is free.