Only licenced artist to use vantablack
For Semple, Kapoor represents an unchecked art world elitism that has finally gone too far. Semple was outraged that Kapoor had gotten ahold of the pink, but their disagreement goes far beyond paint colors.
Caption: “Up yours.” And so the feud began.Ī post shared by Anish Kapoor on at 2:32am PST
Then Kapoor shared a photo on Instagram featuring him flipping a pink-dipped middle finger to the camera. A legal disclaimer on Semple’s online store made this clear: “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.”īut Lisson Gallery, Kapoor’s London representative, violated Semple’s terms of service to purchase the Pinkest Pink. Semple put out a pigment he called the World’s Pinkest Pink, available for just £3.99 to anyone who wanted it… except Kapoor. He’d been making his own pigments for years, and decided to release one to the public as a protest against Kapoor’s refusal to share Vantablack. Semple is known for his colorful paintings, which frequently make use of pop culture references.
“It’s the equivalent of walking into a house party and just shouting about yourself and not having a conversation with anybody. “He’s got like 40,000 Instagram followers, doesn’t follow anybody back, doesn’t write back to anybody,” Semple says. Kapoor, who is one of the wealthiest artists in the world, declined to engage. Although he’s not the creator of Vantablack, nobody can use it but him.Īrtists everywhere were outraged, and took to social media to voice their concerns. Although Vantablack was developed with military uses in mind, Anish Kapoor acquired exclusive rights to it in 2016. Dubbed Vantablack, the darkest color in the world absorbs 99.96% of the light hitting it, making any surface it’s coated with look like a totally flat black hole. It’s the blackest black in the world, a shade so dark that it absorbs almost all the light that hits it. ‘What can I say? It is a shame,’ the artist commented.As far as art feuds go, the fight between Anish Kapoor and Stuart Semple is unusual-the two British artists are feuding over a color. Kapoor’s 1992 artwork Descent into Limbo, consisting of a 2.5-metre-deep hole in the ground, painted black to give the impression of an endless drop, made headlines last year after a man fell into it while it was on display at Portugal’s Serralves contemporary art museum. To the best of your knowledge, information and belief this material will not make its way into the hands of Anish Kapoor.’Īnish Kapoor next to Descent into Limbo (1992), 2018, Serralves Foundation, Porto. While Semple’s paint will be made available for all to purchase and use, his Kickstarter project names one exception: ‘By backing this project you confirm that you are not Anish Kapoor, you are in no way affiliated to Anish Kapoor, you are not backing this on behalf of Anish Kapoor or an associate of Anish Kapoor. Semple’s project boasts of formulating a new acrylic polymer to hold the pigment: ‘it’s special because it has more available bonds than any other acrylic polymer being used in paints leading to a really dense pigment load and a depth of colour not previously possible.’ His Kickstarter project has raised over GBP£63,000, surpassing its initial GBP£25,000 goal. Semple has described his ‘Black 3.0’ pigment as ‘the blackest, the mattest paint in the known universe It’s like a black hole or a void in a bottle.’ He claims that it can absorb 99 percent of light, just shy of Vantablack’s own capabilities. Stuart Semple has launched a Kickstarter for his own brand of ultra-black paint, with the project already fully funded. Kapoor’s decision soon came under fire from fellow artists over his monopolization of the paint – and one artist has now gone a step further. Three years ago, Anish Kapoor stoked the ire of the art world by acquiring the exclusive license to use the ‘Vantablack’ pigment, made from carbon nanotubes – the military-grade substance is manufactured by Surrey NanoSystems and billed as so dark that it absorbs 99.96 percent of light.