I understand that it's kinda scummy to not let other people use a certain paint, but Vantablack is both toxic and extremely expensive to produce. I feel that this hatred for Anish Kapoor is slightly uninformed for many people, and I was one of them. I still don't think that a single person should have the power to bar others from being able to use a certain pigment, but Vantablack was never meant to be used as paint
He did not patent this. You’re proving the comment above you about being misinformed.
Vantablack was developed by Surrey NanoSystems and they hold the patent to the process of applying this “paint”. That company grated Amish Kapoor the exclusive right to use their PROCESS. It was their choice not to give this right to anyone else.
It is also NOT PAINT. This color is achieved by applying billions of microscopic carbon nano tubes to the surface in a way such that they are all perfectly arranged in exactly the same orientation. This cannot be done by anyone not just be done in a very controlled setting using specialized equipment, and THAT PROCESS is what that patent covers. As stated higher in this thread , “painting” this basketball cost $44,000.
Except he didn’t patent it at all. Vantablack was invented by surrey nanosystems. He was granted the exclusive right to use it by surrey nanosystems, who had no intention of producing it for use by artists, but after they got thousands of requests to use it by artists, chose a single artist to work with.
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u/ASideofSalt 11d ago
Fuck Anish Kapour