From Klein to Kapoor: Artists and Private Individuals’ Rights to Colors.

Anish Kapoor recently announced that he has acquired the exclusive rights to use Vantablack, a special black pigment so dark that it absorbs 99.96% of light. 

Vantablack is a substance produced by Surrey Nano Systems, developed and patented by NASA for military purposes, which facilitates the cloaking of satellites. The paint is characterized by its ability to absorb so much light that it prevents the human eye from detecting the type of shadows that help the brain interpret an object's shape: a crumpled piece of aluminum foil covered with a layer of paint appears almost completely flat.

Kapoor has been experimenting with Vantablack for some time now, having contacted the British company Surrey Nano Systems, the first to be able to mass-produce the pigment. 

This isn't the first time an artist has claimed a unique connection to a particular color. In 1960, French artist Yves Klein patented International Klein Blue (IKB), a unique shade of blue he developed with a Paris paint manufacturer and used in a series of monochrome paintings. Klein died in 1962, but IKB continues to exist and be used today.

 Those who misjudge the exclusivity right could be a marketing strategy by Surrey Nano Systems: associating their material with one of the greatest contemporary artists. Or it could be a reiteration of a well-known historical phenomenon, which links the use of color almost inextricably to the artist's spending power.