Last  year, Anish Kapoor acquired exclusive rights(*) to the “blackest black”, aka Vantablack. Anish who? Great. Forget the man’s name. Vantablack is un-be-lie-vable, it absorbs 99.96% of all light, but he patented it so nobody else except himself can use that black to create art. He patented a colour. What did he made with it so far? A watch. A very, very expensive watch.

Stuart Semple

That made the British artist Stuart Semple SO angry, he decided to share the colours he has been developing for himself. He first started to share ‘’The World’s Pinkest Pink”, but in meanwhile he also launched “The World’s yellowest yellow”, the greenest green and the most glittery glitter.
Colours which are also unbelievable, and CAN be used by everybody. Correction: by everybody, except by Anish Kapoor. You can read it everywhere on his web shop: “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 it’s way into the hands of Anish Kapoor.”
So Stuart Semple shares his colours with the whole world, except with that one fucking egoist who doesn’t want to share his black.

What was Anish Kapoor’s reaction? He placed a picture of himself on Instagram, with his middle finger up, dipped in “The World’s Pinkest Pink”, accompanied by the text “Up yours #pink”. That’s a declaration of war. Not only to Semple, but to ALL artists who agree that you can’t take a patent on a colour.

What did Stuart Semple about it? He began searching for the right composition to make the blackest black possible, at an affordable price, available to all. AND HE DID IT! AND YES I’M SHOUTING NOW BECAUSE I CAN’T SLEEP ANYMORE SINCE I READ THAT NEWS. Awesome! The things you can do with that! Semple says it’s already a very good paint, but not perfect, so he asks everybody to try it, and to show him how you use it. Based on that feedback, he’ll try to ameliorate it. I ordered it instantly. Unfortunately, it’s out of stock at this moment and won’t be available for shipping until next Thursday. Then I have to wait another 5 to 7 working days before it’s here, so my blackest black will arrive at the earliest March 2nd. Oh boy, that’s an eternity!

To be continued, without a doubt  .

Meanwhile, you can watch Stuart Semple’s video about his blackest black on Facebook. And follow him on Instagram of course. Speaking of which: do you know who’s also present on Instagram lately? ;-)

(*) Vantablack is made by the company Surey NanoSystems, they developed it for military and scientific purposes. For even-God-Himself-doesn’t-know-what-reason (but it was probably money), they’ve given Anish Kapoor the exclusive rights to use that black to make Art.