Vantablack: Can an Artist really own a Color?

According to articles by The Guardian and Quartz magazine, yes an artist can.

Vantablack is the "new black" as of 2014. It is considered to be the blackest black, as it reportedly absorbs 99.96% of all light that hits it. In fact, the science behind Vantablack was originally created by a team of NASA engineers who developed a "blacker-than pitch material to help scientists gather hard-to-obtain scientific measurements" and "observe currently unseen astronomical objects, like Earth-sized planets in orbit around other stars." The black was further developed and named by the British company NanoSystems to make stealth satellites stealthier, as it is like looking into a black hole. And now the artist Anish Kapoor (you know, the guy who made the giant, reflective bean in Chicago) has all painting rights to it. As you can imagine, this has gotten a few people up in arms. According to the Guardian:

Painters are outraged that Anish Kapoor, the British sculptor who designed the blood-red Orbit tower for the London Olympics, has exclusive rights to the artistic use of this revolutionary new colour. NanoSystems has confirmed that he alone can paint [with] Vantablack.

This new black isn't exactly a paint, however. According to Quartz:

The thing to remember is that the coveted super-black substance is actually not paint but very tiny tubes composed of carbon, explains former NASA optical physicist John Hagopian, who now runs a startup developing carbon nanotechnology for engineering purposes. The super black is actually “grown” in the lab, the matte black effect coming from seeing a dense patch of these tiny carbon nanotubes which absorbs nearly all light. 

I personally am not super disappointed by the fact that I will never be able to get my hands on a black almost as black as a black hole. I mean... it would be cool, but using it seems a little too difficult for my tastes. Again according to Quartz:

For artists itching to use the scarce super-black substance, Hagopian cautions that applying the material is not as easy as picking up a can of paint. The process involves a gas mask and a special enclosure for the “complex chemical vapor deposition,” and inhaling the fine carbon-based material can be as hazardous as inhaling asbestos.

All-in-all, a black this black is pretty cool. Here is a video by NASA explaining how the black is grown (also, at the end of the video it says that they are getting ready to put this into space, but that actually just happened. Since the production of the video in 2013, the paint has been sent and used at the International Space Station):

To read more about Black pigments or just pigments in general, check out my main Tips and Techniques page.