When public services are affordable and convenient, people will always choose those resources. They are not supposed to be a capitalistic profit-seeking initiative, they are developed for the benefit of the people, for a better life, just as government resources should be used. (tweet)
Update from Boston, where they have removed fares from 3 bus lines and ridership is up 48% in low-income areas.
Apparently I’ve just only been exposed to extremely biased sources on the situation. I was under the impression that Anish kapoor bought vanta black and made it so he was the only artist who could use it commercially
I figured as much. And it’s really not your fault, that’s what everybody thinks, because that is very specifically the narrative that Stewart simple propagated to the media, which worked because it launched his career. We all hate the idea of an elitist asshole gatekeeping something, especially in the name of art. But as I’m about to explain, nothing is further from the truth than that narrative.
So in order for me to explain this to people who’ve only ever heard the Stewart simple version of the story. I need to reset the narrative around Vantablack so let’s discuss the following framework.:
What Vantablack is: Vantablack is a substance made out of carbon nano tubes, originally grown in a lab and functions as the darkest synthetic material on earth. Under a microscope Vanta black looks more like shards of glass, sticking out as tubes. The original version of Vanta Black was so difficult to work with that there was no possible way it could be used outside of its original intent.
What Vantablack is not: a pigment. A paint. Vantablack is not something that you were supposed to use to paint with.
Who creates and distributes Vantablack: an engineering company named Surrey NanoSystems.
Who does not do those things: an art house. A distribution company. Any kind of company that creates and distributes pigments on a massive, artistic scale.
Who was Vantablack made for: Vanta Black was made by aerospace engineers for aerospace engineers, looking for something to coat the insides of massive NASA telescopes.
Who it was not made for: artists.
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Hopefully already just by understanding what Vantablack is, what it was made for, and who it’s made by you and other people are beginning to see what the problem is with Stuart simples narrative around Vanta black. 
But you may be wondering if Vanta black is a highly toxic unstable substance made out of carbon nano tubes by aerospace engineers for aerospace engineers, working in space, then how did we get here? well, Vanta, black 2.0, if you will was created in such a way that it could be sprayed onto substances in a certain way meaning that theoretically it could be used artistically. Surround nanosystems held an exhibition where they displayed Vanta black and when artist saw this, they were inundated with calls from artist, wanting to use it in their work. But as we’ve already established surrey nanosystems is not a distribution company. They’re an engineering company. And they made the decision that they could only work with one artist, because they simply did not have the physical ability to produce Vantablack at a scale that allowed them to work with more than one person. (To this day, vanta Black has to be distributed by a specialized robotic arm that creates it in painfully small amounts in an enclosed box that can then be given to someone in a lab. )
Enter Anish Kapoor: Anish Kapoor, at this time was already a world, renowned artist, and the creator of many public facing pieces, such as cloud gate, a.k.a. the Chicago Bean. His entire life‘s work was dedicated to how light is refracted and interplays with the void, making him not only the perfect person to be chosen because of prestige but also because his life‘s work spoke to the engineers who created Vanta black.
Now this should’ve been seen as an incredible accomplishment and honor for this Indian artist to be chosen as the soul licensor of Vantablack as this company was only able to choose one person and people were really excited about this for him and that’s where the story ends, right? Right? Right? 
Enter Stuart Semple: Stuart simple was a 25-year-old man in the UK living with his mother when she came into his room and told him about Vantablack. As an artist himself, Stewart simple wanted to try Vanta Black, and was told by the company that he could not. It was then that he discovered the only person on earth licensed to use Vantablack was Anish Kapoor. Please keep in mind that Vantablack is not a paint, and it is so difficult to work with that Anish Kapoor has only ever produced one singular piece of art with Vantablack. So like a child who has just been told by their mom that they can’t use something, Stewart simple decided to throw a hissy fit. He created a pink pigment that he conditionally said everyone could use except Anish Kapoor and then launch this pigment with the hashtag #ShareTheBlack. 
This caught the attention of the news media, and when asked about this situation, that was previously relatively unheard of, Stuart simple, went onto describe Anish Kapoor as this tyrannical elitist who “banned“ the use of Vantablack to keep other artists from using it. But hopefully you can already see how that is Literally not true. Anish Kapoor does not make Vanta black. Anish Kapoor cannot sell Vanta black. Anish Kapoor cannot give you permission to use Vanta black. And Vanta black is not even a paint. 
But the narrative of some elitist asshole gatekeeping, a color, versus some poor, struggling artist, was so catching that tens of thousands of people on the Internet flooded Anish Kapoor‘s social media, pages to talk shit about him and to this day when Anish Kapoor is brought up, it’s always “fuck Anish Kapoor“ meanwhile Stuart has launched an entire very lucrative career around slandering and smearing Anish Kapoor when Anish Kapoor literally never did anything but be qualified enough to be the one person chosen by a company that is literally only able to work with one person at a time. 
The fact remains Stewart simple, very intentionally allows this narrative to continue because it makes him money. He has made a ton of money off of slandering Anish Kapoor as if Anish Kapoor is the reason he can’t use Vanta black when the reason he can’t use Vanta black is because no one can use Vanta black, and the only person who might be able to use it is Anish Kapoor and that is not Anish Kapoor‘s fault. 
It is not lost on me that there are racial connotations to the story as well. There are actual companies and artists in the world who have trademarks around certain colors that they do not allow other people to use in public showcases. But we really as a community allowed this white man to smear and slander an Indian artist, based entirely off of misinformation, and to this day people jump on the Internet, saying fuck Anish Kapoor because of it. Now, Anish Kapoor is not some struggling person. He is probably a multibajillionaire And doesn’t necessarily need our sympathy. But I think the story of Vantablack is a really good case study of how misinformation spreads, and how people never bother to question the framework of a story. 
This is an incredibly important post about how we need to question sensationalized stories and double check what we hear and learn. Thank you so much to @afronerdism for bringing this up and writing such a concise post. I’m incredibly grateful for your work here.
Stories like this are really fun to engage with, and I’ve even said “fuck Anish Kapoor” before, without knowing much about his history or work. That’s usually not like me! But it’s easy to get caught up in something that feels righteous on a surface level and seems easy to get behind. It’s really nice sometimes for things to feel clear cut.
So spending time to learn more about Anish Kapoor and his work, I highly recommend you look! His Wikipedia is of course, a nice first glance. But what I found was a sensitive and thoughtful man exploring so many themes both deeply personal and also so very relatable. His art really speaks to me.
“In the end, I’m talking about myself. And thinking about making nothing, which I see as a void. But then that’s something, even though it really is nothing.” -Anish Kapoor
Anish Kapoor also works with stainless steel, which requires permission to use. He was confused by the backlash because no one seemed bothered by that. I suppose Stuart Semple wasn’t in the business of making complex metal compounds. Just like he lacks the training and extensive spray systems (he could probably now afford from his success with selling Black 2.0 and 3.0) to work with Vantablack VBx2.3: A liquid paint by Surrey Nanosystems available to studios who have the correct tools and training for use as mentioned above.
I generally consider myself an art cat man, not a science cat man - so I’ll let Surrey NanoSystems explain the development and innovation of Vantablack and its further iterations, which can be found: Here
( If any of those sources go down, I’m referencing the Surrey NonSystems site directly, where they talk about all their work and have extensive information on Vantablack and its development. )
[ It’s also of note that Kapoor HAS made more pieces with Vantablack and its iterations. He sold a set of luxury watches in 2017 and released new works using Vantablack in 2022. ]
If you were saying “Aw man, I really do like using Black 2.0 and Black 3.0 as pigments, but I don’t want to support a branded campaign meant to disparage one artist to grow a following and lucrative business for another: Try Musou Black by KOYO Orient Japan Co., Ltd.
That’s quite expensive you may muse, considering importation fees. But, if your goal is the blackest black, Musou Black is darker than Black 3.0.
There are TONS of videos, reddit posts, and blogs documenting the difference between the two paints.
Particularly useful is The Black Market, which is KOYO Orient Japan’s English storefront that sells not only Musou Black, but Kiwami Black Fabric.
If that cost is not something you can manage, any variety of Mars Black is perfectly serviceable. It’s the most opaque black not created with a carbon base.
It’s been widely available and affordable since the 1950s. It ages well, and is the safest of the black pigments to use (considered non-toxic).
I’m not paid to say this, but when I want a very smooth, very opaque black I go for Liquitex’s Mars Black, but any brand’s variation of Mars Black will do.
Go forth with this information, and be very metal in echoing the *true dark* you need in your works.
All of this to say… I’m sorry Anish Kapoor.
This post has been recently updated to include that Anish Kapoor has made more pieces recently with Vantablack and appropriate links to source that!
Thanks, The Cat Man MGMT (who is just me).
Can I just say how proud of you all I am that you aren’t just taking my word for it and that you’re all fact checking this and even if you’re realizing that I was correct, I am super proud of all of you for doing your due diligence because I could’ve just been some crackhead on the Internet. 
I think it’s important to note that Anish Kapoor is also Jewish, and there’s a Subtle Additional Bit Of Shittiness when you aim all of that "oooh, that greedy person is keeping this thing from you,” at a Jew.
imagine you make microwave popcorn and by wild chance every single kernel has the same exact popping point and after like a minute in the microwave the bag instantly fills up with a single earsplitting gunshot noise would that be fucked up or what
cruelty is so easy. youre not special for choosing it
“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist; a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain.”
-Ursula K. LeGuin, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
“Evil is boring. Right? I kinda believe in the banality and mundaneness of evil. Evil is just selfish impulses, which at the end of the day are really easy to understand. It’s easy to understand why people do bad things. It’s like “yeah, ok, you’re selfish and scared and cruel, I get it”. Being good is complex and beautiful and hard.” - Brennan Lee Mulligan
“Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.”
