LONDON, July 19 ― Today's artists have an almost infinite palette of colours to work with. But there are a handful of “special” colours, like Barbie pink, that they can't use freely. Some artists are fighting this colour exclusivity by bringing out their own exclusive pigments.
Stuart Semple is of them. The British artist recently launched a new shade of neon pink reminiscent of the colour associated with Barbie. He has taken this similarity to the extreme, calling the shade “Pinkie ― The Barbiest Pink.” But this initiative should not be viewed as a homage to the world's most famous doll, but rather as an act of protest.
The reason for this is that the toy manufacturer Mattel, which has marketed the doll since March 9, 1959, holds the exclusive rights to the use of Barbie Pink, preventing anyone else from using it. And Stuart Semple is taking a stand against this colour exclusivity. “No colour should be owned by a corporation, especially a corporation that is making billions of dollars at a time when artists and creators are really, really struggling,” he told Artnet News.
The “Pinkie ― The Barbiest Pink” shade is available to buy on the Culture Hustle website, priced at US$34.99 for a 150ml bottle. Anyone is free to buy themselves a dose of this “Barbiest Pink,” except for Mattel and anyone associated with it. An evident jibe at the American company, just a few days before the eagerly-awaited release of the Barbie movie, in US theatres, July 21.
Shades of discord
Mattel has pulled out all the stops to promote Greta Gerwig's new feature film, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling. The company has signed a host of licensing agreements to ensure that the whole world gets a taste for Barbie this summer. From clothes and make-up palettes to toys of all kinds and video game consoles, a whole wave of candy-pink products have appeared in stores in recent weeks to ensure that Barbie is high up on the pop culture agenda. A mansion in Malibu, inspired by the famous doll's DreamHouse, has even been made available to rent, free of charge, for two nights on the Airbnb platform, to further increase the potential economic benefits of a blockbuster that cost US$100 million.
However, there's no question of Mattel relenting on the use of its famous Barbie Pink. Several artists have appropriated colours in the past, including the French painter Yves Klein and his famous deep blue hue, IKB (International Klein Blue). The sculptor and visual artist Anish Kapoor, meanwhile, acquired the patent for Vantablack, the world's blackest black, in 2016. This act outraged the art world and prompted Stuart Semple to market the world's pinkest pink that same year. This shade is freely available to everyone... except Anish Kapoor. At the time, the latter was quick to respond to Stuart Semple in an Instagram post that speaks for itself. ― ETX Studio
