World’s ‘Blackest’ Black Paint Just Got Even Blacker; Is Now Available To All

By Mikelle Leow, 31 Jan 2019

Image via Culture Hustle

The world now has the potential to get even darker, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Currently, artist Anish Kapoor owns exclusive rights to ‘Vantablack’, the blackest black ever made. It is so black that a man fell into the artist’s installation of a bottomless pit, thinking that it was a solid circle.

When Kapoor obtained the rights to the pigment, a question rang in other creatives’ heads: “What about us?”

Cue British artist Stuart Semple, who in 2017 offered the world an open-source version of the blackest black paint they could find: ‘BLACK 2.0’. At the time, ‘BLACK 2.0’ was the “most pigmented, flattest, mattest black acrylic paint in the world.”

However, the pigment has now been—for lack of better word—overshadowed by Semple’s latest black acrylic paint, ‘BLACK 3.0’.

Two years in the making, ‘BLACK 3.0’ is able to absorb between 98-percent and 99-percent of visible light.

To put things in perspective, Kapoor’s ‘Vantablack’ material captures about 99.96-percent; it is tedious to use, though, as it requires assistance in a lab. No such complications exist with ‘BLACK 3.0’, which is an acrylic paint.

The issue with most black pigments is that they are slightly reflective, no thanks to the carbon, coal, or charcoal present in them. “So we created a whole new pigment in the lab… [called] ‘Black Magick’, and it is born matte!” described Culture Hustle, Semple’s store.

What makes ‘BLACK 3.0’ better than ‘BLACK 2.0’? The previous version contained a tiny gray tint to create a mattifying effect, but the ingredient is no longer needed, since the new pigment starts as matte. Samples were also delivered to about 1,000 artists around the world, with 93-percent writing back that they preferred it to the previous formula.

Additionally, the revamped acrylic paint contains a new polymer that’s designed to “hold the pigment” better. “This means it can cling onto way more pigment, leading to a really dense pigment load and a depth of colour not previously possible.”

While most super-black pigments—like Kapoor’s ‘Vantablack’—are “complicated to use and extremely expensive,” Semple’s ‘BLACK 3.0’ is “a super affordable, easy-to-use paint that [is] familiar to artists.”

Perhaps the best thing about ‘BLACK 3.0’ is it’s availability to all… except Kapoor, of course.

Its Kickstarter page reads, “By backing this project you confirm that you are not Anish Kapoor, you are in no way affiliated to Anish Kapoor, you are not backing this on behalf of Anish Kapoor or an associate of Anish Kapoor. To the best of your knowledge, information and belief this material will not make its way into the hands of Anish Kapoor.”

The project has since been funded on Kickstarter at more than double its goal of £25,000 (US$32,863), which means ‘BLACK 3.0’ will be ready for the masses. The paint will ship as early as March 2019. You can find out more about it here.