most artists dislike the entire idea of copyrighting a color for the singular purpose of limiting its use to one person. some people care more about copyrights than others.
Pretty sure vantablack was patented not copyrighted.
It’s also possible that is wasn’t either and just was really hard to produce.
Afaik vantablack isn’t really designed to be be painted and requires quite specialised equipment.
They sell it as a paint, however : “Controversy arose when Surrey Nanosystems granted Anish Kapoor exclusive rights to use Vantablack in artistic applications. Many artists voiced opposition to his monopoly over the substance.”
Thats the beef. If you try to get or use it, Amish Kapoor will typically take legal action.
Also, hes never really made any compelling art with it either.
He’s the guy who made that big silver sculpture in Chicago. He intensely dislikes that everyone calls it The Bean because he named it Cloud Gate. Really, he made a giant sculpture in a public place that is shaped like a massive shiny kidney bean and is big mad that people call it a bean. Seems like hes kind of a thin skinned baby.
This is drama from a decade ago so don’t take it as gospel: Iirc, the contract Kapoor signed with Surrey gave him the right to enforce the patent when used in art or aesthetic design applications. I can’t remember if he sues as an involved party on behalf of Surrey or if he somehow has the right to sue directly, but the effect is the same. Basically Surrey didn’t want to deal with enforicng it, and signed over that as part of the exclusivity deal.
most artists dislike the entire idea of copyrighting a color for the singular purpose of limiting its use to one person. some people care more about copyrights than others.
Pretty sure vantablack was patented not copyrighted. It’s also possible that is wasn’t either and just was really hard to produce. Afaik vantablack isn’t really designed to be be painted and requires quite specialised equipment.
They sell it as a paint, however : “Controversy arose when Surrey Nanosystems granted Anish Kapoor exclusive rights to use Vantablack in artistic applications. Many artists voiced opposition to his monopoly over the substance.”
Thats the beef. If you try to get or use it, Amish Kapoor will typically take legal action.
Also, hes never really made any compelling art with it either.
He’s the guy who made that big silver sculpture in Chicago. He intensely dislikes that everyone calls it The Bean because he named it Cloud Gate. Really, he made a giant sculpture in a public place that is shaped like a massive shiny kidney bean and is big mad that people call it a bean. Seems like hes kind of a thin skinned baby.
If I remember correctly the company that gave him permission to use vantablack never gave him the ownership of it.
So presumably Amish couldn’t do anything personally about it.
This is drama from a decade ago so don’t take it as gospel: Iirc, the contract Kapoor signed with Surrey gave him the right to enforce the patent when used in art or aesthetic design applications. I can’t remember if he sues as an involved party on behalf of Surrey or if he somehow has the right to sue directly, but the effect is the same. Basically Surrey didn’t want to deal with enforicng it, and signed over that as part of the exclusivity deal.