Lo, and behold world’s pinkest pink! The color has been created by a British artist Stuart Temple, who has spent over a decade of working with paint manufacturers. The paint is available online, and you can buy 50 grams of it for $4.95.
The pink color created is very reflective, which makes it give off a strong fluorescence. The artist explained,
“The pink already chucks out bucket loads of light, but then we made it water soluble so it can be used as a paint and that took it up a notch.”
Pic Credits: Stuart Semple
But there’s a comical twist! You can’t buy the paint if your name is Anish Kapoor! Yes, this is the same artists who in 2014, shocked the art world when he bought off the exclusive rights to use world’s blackest black in his art. The color was developed by a company called NanoSystems, and the “Vantablack” color consists of a series of microscopic vertical tubes. These tubes absorb 99.96 percent of light, making it the darkest pigment known to man.
The color was created for military and astronomic purposes, but it did catch the attention of many artists around the world who wanted to use this in their work. But one fine morning NanoSystems announced that Indian artist Anish Kapoor had bought exclusive rights to use the world’s darkest black, much to the ire of every artist. That included Stuart Temple, who is now trying to convey his disgust by making the pinkest pink available to everyone, except Anish Kapoor.
He said in an interview,
“When I first heard that Anish had the exclusive rights to the blackest black I was really disappointed. I was desperate to have a play with it in my own work and I knew lots of other artists who wanted to use it too. It just seemed really mean-spirited and against the spirit of generosity that most artists who make and share their work are driven by. I thought a good comment would be if I made a paint that was available to everyone but exclude him from using it. That way he can have a taste of his own medicine!”
Stuart writes on his website,
“I don’t think it’s really very fair! We all remember kids at school who wouldn’t share their colouring pencils, but then they ended up on their own with no friends. It’s cool, Anish can have his black. But the rest of us will be playing with the rainbow!. Basically, now it pretty much glows. Whilst Anish’s absorbs nearly all light, mine reflects it, kind of the antithesis of what his is doing.”
Pic Credits: Stuart Semple
PINK can be bought on Culture Hustle, for $4.95, but before you do you’ll have to make a legal declaration in a checklist form 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.”
A friend of Anish Kapoor revealed that the artist is “desperate to get his hands on some PINK.” But in response Stuart Temple replied,
“But I’m not budging till he shares the black. He started it!”.
Shortly after Stuart declared this Anish Kapoor ban, he posted this picture on his Facebook:
