In this series, we explore the stories behind certain pigments - natural and synthetic - and how these hues, and artists’ understanding of color in general has impacted the development of art. Read the first installment, What is Color? here.

What does Black mean?

Black has symbolized many things over the centuries, including death, grief, power, wealth and sophistication. Thanks to the dark nutrient-rich soil of the Nile, Egyptians linked the color with fertility. The Ancient Greeks associated it with the underworld, ruled over by Hades who sat upon an ebony throne. In Rome, purple was for emperors, black was for lowly craftsmen. However, by the time of the Renaissance, it had become a signifier of luxury within royal courts - a theme echoed centuries later in the society portraits of the Belle Époque, where black attire implied elite status. Even today, black tie is worn when strict formality is required. In many cultures, black has been linked with magic, evil and witches - unsurprisingly, no Halloween would be complete without it. It can also represent religious submission and humility, evident in the black clothing worn by priests. If white represents light, then black indicates its absence, and it is precisely through this contrast of light and dark that artists create an impression of the world on canvas. It is also hard to imagine how the fashion world would cope without black’s legendary powers of slimming.

Carbon Blacks

The oldest black pigment is carbon black, which actually describes a diverse family of pigments made from burning various types of organic matter (wood, plants, oil, bones and horns), using a heavily restricted air supply. It might be the most ancient of blacks, but it’s still being used in the toner that fills today’s printers and photocopiers.

The process of making carbon blacks has been refined over the centuries by employing different materials and burning procedures to produce subtly different properties. Charcoal is a form of carbonized wood that can either be used as a stick to draw with or as a paint when ground into a powder and mixed with water. We find charcoal being used to draw bison on the cave walls of both Lascaux and Altamira, dating back around 20,000 years. Artists today still use sticks of charcoal to mark out their initial designs on canvas or make finished drawings on paper.

Vine black has been made since antiquity by charring dried grape stems and vines to create a cool bluish black. Lamp black has similarly ancient beginnings, originally created out of the residual soot from oil lamps (but now made from burning oil or gas). Purer than charcoal, it was often used in the murals on Egyptian tomb walls and was also popular among artists during the Renaissance. Chinese ink is a type of carbon-based black made from a combination of soot and animal glue. Invented in Ancient China, it became the natural choice for writing in the Middle Ages because it offered the maximum degree of contrast and clarity against white parchment and paper. This was only accelerated by the development of printing in the 15th century (‘printer’s ink’ was a blend of soot, turpentine and walnut oil). This stark black on white format has remained the default choice in book and newspaper publishing - and even on today’s computer screens. Peach black is a carbon black invented in the Medieval Period, originally made from baking peach stones (or other fruit kernels). Despite producing a deep bluish-black, it slowly fell out of use until finding a rather unexpected and noble purpose during the First World War. Faced with Germany’s devastating deployment of lethal chlorine gas, the Allies discovered that packing gas masks with the pigment prevented soldiers from dying. Millions of peach stones were gathered by the Red Cross and used to save lives.

Ivory Black (aka Bone Black)

Ivory black is the most important of all the carbon blacks. It was originally made by charring ivory pieces in a covered crucible, although other animal bones were often used as a substitute to very similar effect. The darkest and most intense of all carbon blacks, it was already being made back in prehistoric times. The fact that it is also warmer and browner in tone, as well as being more transparent, makes it perfect for mixing subtle tints. It was greatly esteemed in ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome - Pliny the Elder tells us that the famous Greek painter Apelles was particularly fond of it. It was also popular throughout the Medieval and Renaissance eras. Rembrandt utilized its richness when painting the black clothing of his sitters, occasionally even using it pure and unmixed in the darkest folds. The pigment played a crucial role in facilitating his unmistakable aesthetic, characterized by sombre and introspective faces emerging out of dark shadowy backgrounds.

Thanks to today’s ban on ivory trading, modern tubes labeled ‘ivory black’ will actually be a type of bone black. However, one specialist company still legally makes genuine ivory black by using an old stock of mammoth ivory shards from Siberia.

Mars Black

Mars black is the only pigment on our list to be named after a god - the Roman god of iron to be precise. It is also the first that is not made from carbon, but rather synthetic iron oxide, which also gives us Mars violet and Mars yellow. Mars pigments were invented during the 20th century as a way of replacing naturally occurring earth pigments. Like ivory black, it is warmer in tone, but far more opaque. Quick to dry, it is often used by painters in their underpainting layer, instead of slower drying carbon blacks.

Vantablack

The most infamous black is arguably Vantablack - the ‘blackest’ black ever created. Because it absorbs nearly every photon of visible light (all 99.965% of it, to be precise), if an object is painted with Vantablack, the human eye reads it as simply not being there - rather like a formless void. In 2016, the contemporary artist Anish Kapoor bought the exclusive rights to the pigment, which certainly didn’t make him any friends within the painting community. Then again, MIT has now invented an even ‘blacker’ black, so perhaps it wasn’t money well spent after all.

Should black even be on palette in the first place?

There has been a long running debate since the late 19th century as to whether a pure black pigment should actually be used by artists. At least in the popular imagination, the Impressionists banished black from their palettes, summed up by Renoir’s saying: “No shadow is black. It always has a color”. Drawing on the latest scientific theories of complementary colors, they tended to make a ‘chromatic’ black mixed up from blues, reds and green. Such was their supposed antipathy to black, the French President Georges Clemenceau ordered the black drapes that surrounded Monet’s coffin be removed, with the cry of: “No! No black for Monet”.

However, as with all good stories, the truth is a little more complicated. On being told that black is not a color, Renoir once replied: “What makes you think that? Black is the queen of colors. I always detested Prussian Blue. I tried to replace black with a mixture of red and blue, I tried using cobalt blue or ultramarine, but I always came back to ivory black”. Even Monet, who certainly used black less than most, would still resort to ivory black when necessary. Moreover, where would 20th century abstract art be without Kazimir Malevich’s Black Square (1915)? It would seem, one way or another, that artists are inevitably drawn back to black.