Anish Kapoor and a new black...

11:49 a.m.

06/02/16 - Anish Kapoor, Indian-born artist, aged 62, has decided to buy a color: not just any color, but the "non color". It's a black pigment, the world's black-est, called "Vantablack" and developed by the British company Surrey Nano Systems. It's the darkest applicable substance, because it can absorbe 99,965% of the light. This magic is due to a micro-tubes system that allows the luminous particles to bounce against it and never get reflected.

Kapoor applies it only on his sculptures, because a clause in the purchase contract states that it can only be used with artistic purposes. How is it possible that a color can belong to someone? The truth is, this is not a first. Science has always been a great ally to artist as supplier of pigments. Michael Faraday, a chemist and physicist who studied electromagnetism, advised J.M.W. Turner. The French colourist Panetier designed the Viridian green for the Impressionists. Nobel Prize winner Wilhem Oswald's color theories influenced Klee and Kandisky. Of course, the most famous color in art history is Yves Klein's deep blue, patented in 1960 as International Klein Blue. To create such pigment, he was aided by Parisian chemist Edouard Adam.

But why did Kapoor picked this black? Probably because of its purity and splendour and to achieve results that would be imposible with ordinary paints. It is thus demonstrated in his works...