Anish Kapoor is a celebrated British sculptor whose grand scale works I find thrilling, not that I know anything about art. Last year, he pissed everyone off by gaining exclusive rights to a new color, the blackest black pigment ever created. It was developed by a company called NanoSystem, who believe it is “the blackest material in the universe, after a black hole.”
It’s pretty fucking black. Who wouldn’t be excited about that?
When Kapoor won the rights to use the color, Vantablack, he was ready to defend himself.
Why exclusive? Because it’s a collaboration, because I am wanting to push them to a certain use for it. I’ve collaborated with people who make things out of stainless steel for years and that’s exclusive.
Yeah, but come on, steel isn’t a color. Why can’t you share? What’s your deal? He addressed the issue obliquely:
The problem is that colour is so emotive – especially black … I don’t think the same response would occur if it was white. Perhaps the darkest black is the black we carry within ourselves. It’s not the night where you switch the lights off – it’s the night where you close your eyes. There’s a psycho side to blackness that we don’t associate with other colours readily. I suspect red does the same. I’ve worked with red a great deal, for not dissimilar reasons.
Well, obviously there is no reasonable defense for not sharing the pigment. So another British artist decided to object by creating the “pinkest pink” and selling it online to anyone who promised not to share it with Anish Kapoor.
Hahahaha, Stuart Semple, you are a prankster after my own heart and I salute you. Here is Semple’s argument:
But wait! Kapoor somehow got a hold of the pink paint, and posted a picture to Instagram, giving Semple the finger…a finger dipped in his pink.
Semple would not be outdone by Kapoor. He created the world’s “most glittery glitter,” again forbidding sales to Anish Kapoor until he’s willing to share his black.
Feud on, you guys! Life is unbearable except for stuff like this.
Meanwhile, whatever you think of Kapoor, check out his work online. I still revere him. And I want that glitter.
I’m working on the world’s purplest purple and I’m not sharing it or even showing it to anyone – ever.
So there!
Some fun for a change! Thank you Sista!
It is fun but, at risk of being a mood hoover (apologies in advance) I can’t help think that these Arty folk need to get out more. There are people on this planet that don’t even have clean water to drink…….
This made me laugh. The blackest black, the pinkest pink and the sparkliest glitter. All things I would love.
I hate pretentious assholes. Which it seems like the Kapoor guy just might be.
Alas, Penny, the parched will be with you always…
I like the artfulness of fighting (or pretending to fight) over these materials far more than Matthew Barney’s dreadful Crememaster Cycle and anything Jeff Koons has done (although Koons’ Koonsness is kind of fascinating). And not-distributing the black pigment is less shitty than Shkreli not-sharing that Wu Tang Clan album. We appear to have entered the age of super villains.
Look at me, I know some art things!
Also:
“It’s like, ‘how much more black could this be?’ and the answer is ‘None. None more black.'”
-Nigel Tufnel
Andra – Yes you will show us that purple! How can you lord it over us if we can’t even see it??
DJ – It’s fun to have fun, right??
Penny – Yep. The world is so cruel and full of injustice. But distracting ourselves is how we deal with it, mostly. It’s how I deal with it, anyway.
Kellie – He does seem very pretentious, but I’ve admired him for so long! His stupidity about the black sort of humanizes him for me.
Romeo – Oh christ, Matthew Barney, even Bjork got sick of him, didn’t she? I agree on all points.
re Nigel Tufnel, hahahahahahha!
Is it the power of suggestion because that black does look pretty black. The glitter even looks more glittery, too.
I love this feud and just how ridiculously privileged some people are, and they want you to know it.