Anish Kapoor is an artist known for his instillation and conceptual art, with works such as the Cloud Gate (a.k.a. Chicago’s “The Bean” if you are from the Midwest). However, he is also known as being the only person in the world who can use a material called Vantablack (a material that absorbs 99.96% of light) for any artistic purpose. Unsurprisingly, this made the art community mad. VERY MAD.
The outcry from the artistic community is just. Anish Kapoor is a very successful and accomplished artist who is monopolizing a material that could have so much potential in the hands of the artistic community. But one artist, Stuart Semple, refuses to let Anish Kapoor have Vantablack without a fight. This has lead to one of the funniest, and indeed pettiest, fights between modern artists I have ever seen.
In retaliation for Kapoor buying artistic rights to Vantablack, Semple and other British artists created the world’s “Pinkest Pink”. This color is available to everyone in the world, except Anish Kapoor. Not to be outdone, Anish Kapoor took to instagram to post a picture of him showing his true feelings about Pinkest Pink, and they were far from anything positive.
Semple then released “The Most Glittery Glitter”, a form of glitter created partially from glass shards to warn off Anish Kapoor’s wandering finger. Semple and team have also created many other materials such as the “Blackest Black” line that has reached up to Black 3.0 which can reflect 99% of light.
While being overall a funny exchange, I think this fight in the art world shows the great innovation and inspiration that can occur from the most unlikely of places. Thanks to this fight, now everyone has some of the Pinkest Pinks and Most Glittery Glitter ever made… well everyone except Anish Kapoor, of course.
ADDC 401 Fall 2019 
This was so petty!! But it had people talking, and people who did not know about Anish Kapoor before knew about him after.
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