ONLY LICENCED ARTIST TO USE VANTABLACK CRACKED

By selling it at cost it is also a comment on the history of precious materials in art interpreted as value. It could be interpreted as disgust against the gluttony of the 1% by targeting a single pig, Anish Kapoor. However, this is a cool project which uses the sale of art materials as a artistic statement. The only bad news is that Semple doesn’t reveal what the binder is, what the pigment is, what the color coordinates are, or how much light it absorbs.

Semple’s Black is quite similar to the AIC PhD Target black on the far right. Areas where the Golden paint is thin, there is still a slight sheen from the acrylic medium, making it look less black. When viewed with specular light, the difference is amazing, even in the image. L – R: Stuart Semple’s Black, Golden Fluid Acrylic Carbon Black, Regular Golden Carbon Black, and Golden Airbrush Carbon Black. The paint comes in a bottle and has a viscosity similar to the Golden Fluid Acrylic, though more heavily pigmented.

ONLY LICENCED ARTIST TO USE VANTABLACK CRACKED

Even where the paint was thick, it cracked and remains matt, unlike the thick areas of the Golden Fluid that show a reflection from their glossy surface. The surface is non-friable but oils from fingers can remain the surface, making it look less black. But in real life Stuart Semple’s Black is significantly more matt, almost indistinguishable from a pure finely ground pigment. In this image, with little reflected light, they don’t look all that different. I squeezed a large dollop, then using a new dry brush for each one dragged it down in one stroke on Arches Watercolor paper. To test, I compared it with some of my usual Golden Acrylic Carbon Blacks. It is easy to get paint from Semple: my order arrived from England in about 10 days, and the price and shipping are at cost according to Semple, around 25 bucks. So everyone else in the world will have to settle for the second blackest paint on earth. Fortunately, Stuart Semple at Culture Hustle is making a similar product, though it is not quite as black. Unfortunately, the artist Anish Kapoor has licenced exclusive rights to use it for artwork. A recent thread on the Book-Arts Listserv introduced me to Vantablack the blackest paint ever made, absorbing 99.96% of light.

Only licenced artist to use vantablack