If I told you that one person could own a color, would you believe me? Probably not, right? But what if I told you that exact thing happened? Way back in 2016, a new pigment of black paint was created called “VantaBlack,” otherwise known as the “Blackest Black.” This extremely dark paint absorbs an astounding 99.965% of visible light, significantly darker than any other paint on the market. It was so dark that it practically turned 3D objects into eerie 2D black voids. Obviously, the entire art community was ecstatic to try out this new “Blackest Black,” but then a very famous and very rich artist by the name of Anish Kapoor seized all rights to VantaBlack, making him the sole owner of an entire color.
Anish Kapoor is a British-Indian sculptor known most famously for his sculpture “The Cloud Gate” in Chicago, or as most people call it, “The Bean” (which he hates). He is also known for his controversy about VantaBlack.
Introducing our “hero” to the story, we have Stuart Semple. Another artist who was nowhere near as famous or rich as Kapoor was, he was only known for making paint pigments for artists around the world. After Semple heard about Kapoor’s little stunt, he decided to make a pigment dubbed “The Pinkest Pink” that was available to everyone in the world, except Anish Kapoor.
Semple put this pigment on his website with this legal rider: “By adding this product to your cart you confirm that you are not Anish Kapoor, you are in no way affiliated to Anish Kapoor, you are not purchasing this item on behalf of Anish Kapoor or an associate of Anish Kapoor. To the best of your knowledge, information and belief this paint will not make its way into the hands of Anish Kapoor.”
Stuart Semple thought he might have two or three orders for the pigments, but his little act of defiance blew up. Semple started getting hundreds of orders for the color from artists around the world. Eventually, it caught the attention of Anish Kapoor, who responded on social media with a picture of his middle finger covered in Pinkest Pink with the caption “Up yours.”
The entire art community was outraged by this and begged Semple to create a new black. So with the help of artists everywhere, he was able to create “Black 2.0,” a paint that was only slightly less black compared to VantaBlack. But considering VantaBlack was highly dangerous, had to be made in a lab at over 400 degrees Celsius, and was extremely expensive, people were happy to settle for an invisible difference. Black 2.0 even smelled like cherries! Like Pinkest Pink, Black 2.0 was unavailable to Anish Kapoor.
Later on, Stuart Semple made Black 3.0, which was still a little less black than VantaBlack but was very close—Diamond Dust and The World’s Most Glittery Glitter—all of which were unavailable to Kapoor. The last of which was made with tiny glass particles (it would not feel great to put your middle finger in it) and glittered like nothing else.
For Anish Kapoor’s birthday, Stuart Semple told the art community to kiss The Bean with their pinkest lipstick. The only response Kapoor had to any of this was when he was asked about it at the 2022 Venice Biennale. “It’s too stupid for words,” he said. Since then, not much has changed: a new blacker-black was created, Stuart Semple has continued making pigments (still off limits to Kapoor), and Anish Kapoor is just as snobby as ever, but the story of VantaBlack will go down in art history as a silly David vs. Goliath story.
