THROWING SHADE一場絢爛的色彩大戰
The quest to dominate pigments has artists at war, reveals DAVID VETTER
Colours possess a beauty full of meaning. The alarming crimson of blood, but the seduction of red lipstick. The calm of an azure sky, but the warning of blue police lights. And black, the absence of light, reminds us of our mortality.
It’s a reminder that’s all the more present in the unique work of British sculptor Anish Kapoor. Encountering his totally black objects – so black they lose all shape and meaning – can be existentially terrifying. But Kapoor’s work isn’t just unique because of his ideas. It’s because of his product.
In 2016, Kapoor acquired an agreement to be the only artist who could use the world’s blackest black. Named Vantablack, it was deliberately designed to be darker than any other known material. Objects coated in the substance, made from a ‘forest’ of vertical carbon nanotubes, lose their form – because to make sense of shapes, our eyes rely on reflected light. Vantablack absorbs that light.
‘Photons enter the structure and bounce around until they are absorbed,’ says Ben Jensen, chief technical officer of Surrey Nanosystems, which created Vantablack. ‘As a result, it’s confusing to look at; it warps our perception.’
Kapoor has since used Vantablack in several installations. His Descent Into Limbo, exhibited in 2018 at Portugal’s Serralves Museum, claimed Vantablack’s first victim: an Italian man required medical treatment after falling into the installation, which comprised a 2.5-metre deep pit painted with Vantablack so it looked like a twodimensional disc.
To many artists, the idea that the extremely wealthy Kapoor was the only person able to use a material of such power was an affront.
‘I thought it was really bad,’ says contemporary artist Stuart Semple.
‘It’s against the generosity of what art is. It affects the sense of possibility, if someone who has more money has exclusive access to something and can make something awesome out of it.’
It was as if Kapoor had stolen fire from the gods – and was keeping it all for himself.
Surrey Nanosystems’ Jensen is aghast at such suggestions. ‘People thought that somehow we had patented the colour black, which obviously isn’t true,’ he says. ‘We simply created a process for producing a super- dark material.’
In retaliation against Kapoor’s chromatic coup, Semple released his own pigment. Simply called Pink, and described as ‘the world’s pinkest pink’, he made it available online for £3.99 (HK$40) per 50- gram jar.
But there’s a catch: those who buy it are required to confirm that they are not Anish Kapoor, and that ‘ To the best of your knowledge… this paint will not make its way into the hands of Anish Kapoor’.
Kapoor soon got his hands on a jar. He posted a picture to Instagram of his middle finger covered in the substance, with the caption ‘Up yours #pink’.美麗的色彩蘊含著豐富的。意涵深紅色令人想到駭人的，血光亦為紅唇添上艷色；蔚藍是恬怡然的，天空 卻也是教人神經繃緊的警號燈；晦而 暗無光的，黝黑令我們領悟吾生也有涯的。感歎
英國雕塑家Anish Kapoor新穎奇特的作品，便愈來愈鍾愛選用黑色。的他 全黑創作完全黑不見色，達到「忘形失，意」 令人望而生畏。的他 作品之所以獨一無二，除了在於其構想，還有製成品的獨創性。
Kapoor於2016年取得「Vantablack」的專用權，成為全球唯一可以使用這種世上最黑顏色的藝術家。這種專色經過精心調配，是由「一叢」垂直納米碳管排列而成的物，質 色調比世上任何一種物料還要深沉。只要在物件表面塗上Vantablack，任何形狀也會隱沒。原理在於眼睛需要倚賴物件反射的光線來辨別形狀，但Vantablack就像黑洞般，把所有光線吞噬一空。
Vantablack由Surrey Nanosystems納米技術公司開發，技其 術總監Ben Jensen說：「光子進入物體後會在內部散射，直至被吸收為止。，結果 Vantablack把我們搞胡塗了，它完全顛覆我們的。視覺 」
Kapoor其後以Vantablack創作了多個裝置藝術，2018年於葡萄牙塞拉維斯當代美術館展出的《Descent Into Limbo》是其中之一。作品驟看是一塊圓形的平面實，際上卻有個塗上這種極黑顏料的2.5米深坑，場內一名意大利男子不慎失足墮下，需送院治，理 是Vantablack的第一名受害者。
家財萬貫的Kapoor竟可獨佔這種潛力驚的人 顏令色， 不少藝術家也感到忿忿不平。當代藝術家Stuart Semple說：「這實在令人遺憾，有違藝術普世共享的，原則 而且妄自否定其他可令能， 人以為只要有錢就能壟斷資源，為所欲。為 」情況好比Kapoor從眾神當中偷走火種，然後據為己有。
Surrey Nanosystems的Jensen卻對此說不以為然，：他說 「大家都認為我黑們把色私有化，但事實絕非如此。只我們 是創造出一種極黑物的料 製造過程。」
為了報復Kapoor的專橫壟，斷 Semple決定還以顏色，創出「世上最粉紅的粉紅色」Pink，並且在網上公開發售，每瓶50克的僅顏料 售3.99英（鎊 約40港元）。
As humorous as the feud might appear, the passions it stirred reveal that our relationship with colour is no laughing matter. As Kapoor later acknowledged in The Guardian newspaper, ‘ The problem is that colour is so emotive – especially black.’
Colour is also lucrative. In 2018 the global inorganic pigment market was valued at US$16.8 billion, a figure that is forecast to almost double by 2026. Owning the rights to a new pigment is, therefore, a big deal. But colour is a tricky business.
‘Blue, for example, rarely exists in nature,’ says Mas Subramanian, Milton Harris Professor of Materials Science at Oregon State University – and the discoverer of an entirely new pigment. ‘You can see blue in eyes or in the feathers of birds – but it doesn’t come from pigments. It comes from light interacting with a nanostructure.’
Subramanian notes that French artist Yves Klein achieved fame and a measure of notoriety for his International Klein Blue (IKB) paint in 1960 – but contrary to popular belief Klein was unable to patent the mixture, partly because IKB is not a pigment but instead heavily reliant on ultramarine, originally obtained by grinding semi-precious lapis lazuli.
The bottom line is that many naturally occurring colours are too complex to be replicated, and have only been discovered through serendipity. Take Subramanian: in 2009 he asked a graduate student to synthesise a mixture of the elements yttrium, indium, manganese and oxygen in the lab furnace, in hopes of yielding a material that could be used in electronics. Instead, the professor was presented with a bright blue substance.
‘Louis Pasteur said “Luck favours the prepared mind”,’ says Subramanian. ‘I was fortunate enough to see it and realise what we had.’
Subramanian immediately applied for a patent for the compound, which he named YInMn (pronounced yin-min) Blue, after its chemical composition. The pigment is now mostly used in the US paint and coatings industry: YInMn Blue reflects infrared light far more efficiently than conventional blue paint, helping to keep buildings cool and reducing energy consumption. Australian company Derivan has also produced an artists’ paint using the pigment. Titled Oregon Blue, the paint is priced at a cool AU$196.99 (HK$1,000) for a 40ml tube.
For his part, Stuart Semple has continued producing his own pigments. His latest offering? The blackest black paint in the world, his own middle finger to Kapoor.
Black 3.0 acrylic paint was a collaborative effort with 1,000 artists, Semple says. They developed a pigment called Black Magick, adding a carefully selected mix of elements – including Fairtrade organic coffee. (‘We needed something to counteract the chemical smell,’ says Semple.)
To pay for the paint, he launched what became the second-most funded art Kickstarter in history, bringing in close to £480,000 (HK$4.8 million) from more than 10,000 backers. (On the page, a note 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.’)
Black 3.0 is due to go on sale in September. Can such a paint ever be as dark as the ultra-hi-tech Vantablack, or as exclusive as YInMn blue? No – but perhaps that isn’t the point. Each of these innovations is just an alternate route, another one of the infinitely creative ways in which people try to address an ancient longing: the desire to master colour.
不過交易附帶一個條：件 買家必須申明自非己並 Anish Kapoor，而作且須 出承諾如下：「盡本人所知……這顏料不會落入Anish Kapoor手中」。，然而 Kapoor很快便得到一瓶，並在Instagram上一題傳 張為「你去 的#粉紅」的照片，展示自染己 上這種粉紅顏料的中指。
雖這然對歡喜冤家的惡鬥猶如一場鬧劇，卻反出們顏的映 我 與 色 關係非同兒戲。Kapoor後來亦向《衛報》承認：「問題顏是 色能牽動情緒，特別是黑。色 」
顏色更能帶來可觀利潤。2018年，全球無機顏料的市值高達168億美元預， 計到2026年，數字將幾乎翻倍。因此，若成功為新面世的顏料申請專利，保證商機無限，但研製顏色是一門棘手的生意。
俄勒岡州立大學物料科學Mil ton Harris講座教授Mas Subramanian發明了一種全新的顏料。他解釋：「舉例說，自然界鮮有色藍 。眼睛或雀鳥羽呈毛 現的藍色，並非源自色素，只是光線與納米結構產生的相互用作」。
Subramanian提到法國藝術家Yves Klein在1960年創出名為International Klein Blue（簡稱IKB）的藍色顏料，因此聲大名噪同，也時來惹 非議。有說Klein為種色這顏取得專利，其實是以訛傳，訛 部分原因是IKB根本不是色素，而是將磨成粉的青金石作為原料材，然後用群青色染料調製而成。
歸根究，柢 許天顏多 然 色結構複雜，難以仿製，當中不少只是在機緣巧合下達到無心插柳柳成蔭的成果。就如Subramanian在2009年指示一位研究生在實驗室的熔爐混合釔、、銦 錳和氧，以製造可用於電子技術的物料。結果他得種出一鮮藍色的物質。
他說「： 生化學家Louis Pasteur說過『機會總是留給有準備的人』，我有幸能夠把機握 會，爭取成」果。
他二話不說便為這種化合物料申請專利，並根據其化學成分命名為「YInMn Blue」（釔銦錳藍） ，現時主要用於美國油漆及塗。料業 釔銦錳藍遠傳較 統的藍色顏料更有效反射紅，外線 有助建築物散熱，節省。能源 澳洲公司Derivan亦以此生產出名為「Oregon Blue」的美術顏料，每支40毫升裝索價高達196.99澳元（約1,000港元）。
至於Stuart Semple則繼續埋首研發自家顏料，創出最新的極黑，之最 向Kapoor的中指回禮。他表示， Black3.0塑膠彩是集1,000名藝術家之力合創，取名為「Black Magick」，並小心翼翼加入經過精挑細選的各種元素，包括公平貿易有機咖啡。他解釋：「因為我們需要蓋過顏料的化學氣味。」
Semple為了生產這種顏料發起眾籌活動得，獲 過萬人響應，籌得接近48萬鎊英（約480萬港元） ，成為Kickstarter有史以來集資額第二高藝的 術項。目 網站的頁面特標別 註：若「 你支持此項，須目 必 申明你並非Anish Kapoor，與他無從屬關係，也非代表Anish Kapoor或他的同」事。
Black 3.0將於正9月 式開售。這種顏料是否比運用超級科技創造的Vantablack還要黑，或比釔銦錳藍更獨無一 二？兩者都不是，這個故事的教訓其實是：自古今至 ，人類均千方百計望希 能夠完全掌握色彩的奧。秘 這些新發明，不過是芸芸創舉中的其中例子而已。