It’s a black day if hues raise a cry

The world has gotten used to many things being patented for exclusive use — and many that were unsuccessfully sought to be, thus, sequestered from widespread use. But the news that a single British artist has been handed the sole worldwide right to use a colour — appropriately, the so-called ‘blackest-black’ as it absorbs 99.96% of light — in the sphere of creative arts marks a dark day for art in general. That it irked another British artist to ‘ban’ the blackest-black monopolist from using the ‘pinkest-pink’ he invented is also equally bizarre.

And the tragedy is compounded by the monopolist ‘illegally’ getting his (artistic) hands on the fluorescent powdery pink pigment and posting an obscene, digital riposte via social media. Now that a ‘glitteriest-glitter’ by the pinkest-pink inventor also beckons the blackest-black usurper, more such shady shenanigans — and more cries over hues —appear to be imminent.

Attempts by organisations to corner the market in many fields is understandable. But monopolies and bans in the creative arts, that too precipitated by the artists themselves rather than the aggrandising political despots they so love to protest against, should be proactively discouraged. After all, hoarding at least in the artistic context should connote a huge canvas not the stockpiling of entire caches.