{"id":15349,"date":"2017-02-09T13:49:12","date_gmt":"2017-02-09T13:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artzealous.com\/?p=15349"},"modified":"2017-02-09T14:04:35","modified_gmt":"2017-02-09T14:04:35","slug":"the-pigment-war-sharetheblack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/the-pigment-war-sharetheblack\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pigment War: #ShareTheBlack"},"content":{"rendered":"

These past few months, we\u2019ve had our eyes glued to the art world\u2019s latest petty spat: Stuart Semple vs. Anish Kapoor. Popcorn in hand, we’re watching this go down\u00a0the only way a true modern catfight goes down: on Instagram. Seriously, when there\u2019s a hashtag about it, you know it\u2019s for real.<\/p>\n

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Let\u2019s catch you up: it all started after artist Anish Kapoor bought the exclusive rights to Vantablack, a pigment said to be the blackest shade of black ever created. It was developed by British company NanoSystems for military purposes and astronomy equipment, but the company allowed Kapoor to be the only artist able to use it. Plenty of artists want to work with this special pigment, but can\u2019t. Because Kapoor won\u2019t share.<\/p>\n

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Enter Stuart Semple: upset with Kapoor\u2019s \u201cselfishness,\u201d he called on \u201crotter\u201d Kapoor to #ShareTheBlack, employing a protest hashtag against the artist\u2019s monopoly of the black shade. Kapoor, showing no remorse, then posted photos of his Vantablack use on Instagram.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>
photo \/\/ Anish Kapoor’s Instagram, @dirty_corner<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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But Semple has worked with chemists for nearly a decade to create \u201cthe world\u2019s pinkest pink\u201d (and eventually the \u201cgreenest green,\u201d \u201cyellowest yellow\u201d and \u201cthe most glittery glitter\u201d). Now that they are ready, he has made them available to everyone in the world. Except for Anish Kapoor. \u00a0In fact, before purchasing it, customers must agree to a legal declaration that states: “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 that hands of Anish Kapoor.\u00a0”<\/p>\n

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In a video<\/a> on his website, Semple explains: \u201cI\u2019m on a mission to share this with everyone I possibly can around the world, except for Anish Kapoor. I really don\u2019t want him to get his hands on this \u2026 I think it\u2019s really unfair [that he won\u2019t share the black] \u2026 so I\u2019ve come up with the idea that I\u2019m going to share my pink with as many people as possible except Anish Kapoor.\u201d Semple’s other videos call Kapoor a \u201crotter\u201d and a \u201cnasty human being.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Kapoor threw major shade (of pink) right back at him\u00a0with an Instagram photo, displaying a pink-pigment covered middle finger to show Semple that he obtained the pink anyway. Instagram commenters got in on the action, disappointed in Kapoor\u2019s smugness and have since resurfaced #sharetheblack.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>
photo from Anish Kapoor’s Instagram, @dirty_corner<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Fast-forward to this week. On Friday, Semple announced his newest product: Black V1.0 \u2013 the \u201cbetter black.\u201d According to his online shop<\/a>, the product \u201ccreate(s) a super-flat, ultra-black covering unlike any other. With just one coat almost any object (even really shiny ones) become super-black and reflect next to no light, giving a Vantastic black hole type effect.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Notice the play on words: \u201cbetter,\u201d \u201cunlike any other,\u201d \u201cVantastic\u201d? Kapoor: the ball is in your court!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These past few months, we\u2019ve had our eyes glued to the art <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":15352,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15349"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}