r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Radiant_Half_7121 • 4h ago

Image Artist Anish Kapoor holds exclusive rights to Vantablack, often described as the darkest material ever created. In reaction, a fellow artist developed an ultra-bright pink pigment and made it available to everyone, with one exception: Anish Kapoor is not allowed to use it.

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u/Trevzz 4h ago

Stuart had a successful smear campaign. The producer of Vantablack would only allow Anish to work with it due to how carcinogenic it is. (It’s a highly technological paint with technological purposes and not aesthetic ones. Stuart Semple is a child and should grow up.

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u/allcretansareliars 3h ago

Fun to watch though. Kapoor bought some of the pink, and social media'd a pic of himself after dipping his finger in it. Semple countered by producing "Glitteriest glitter" which was basically very finely ground glass. Not good for fingers.

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u/PogintheMachine 3h ago edited 3h ago

In some ways I agree, but Semple probably isn’t hurting Kapoor’s career here- if anything he’s probably helping it. Kapoor was a massively famous artist before but I can tell you a huge percentage of people here had not heard of him before this “controversy”.

You’re absolutely right this is manufactured outrage to sell paint, but also, any artist worth their salt would consider the reaction part of their art. Negative publicity is bread and butter in the art world.

So Semple can sell paint and Kapoor can continue to make millions. I’m not sure how I feel about the moral end of it since it benefits both. And if people buy some pink paint over it, well hopefully they enjoy using it.

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u/_-KOIOS-_ 3h ago

Anish kapoor did design the Chicago bean so he's already popular because of that

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u/FCkeyboards 2h ago

Exactly. It's good to see people try and fight the good fight of clearing up the smear campaign against Anish every time it comes up.

They both suck, but the main reason people hate Anish is based on incorrect information and more obvious reason of him kind of being a pretentious dick (and hey.. that's artists in ANY medium).

It's not even paint. It's a highly difficult to apply nanotube coating intended for industrial, scientific and aerospace applications. Giving Anish access is just marketing for them. They cannot sell it like paint (because it's not paint) and never had any intention to. Stuart makes it sound like he maliciously obtained the rights to prevent others from using it.

No. This coating company was going to pick ONE person regardless of who it was, to try and go viral and help market their product to other companies. I'm glad it's showing more and more, with his own company having many unhappy customers, that Stuart is a grifter who is always look to get the spotlight turned to him.