The library of rare colors

The Forbes Pigment Collection at the Harvard Art Museums is a collection of pigments, binders, and other art materials for researchers to use as standards: so they can tell originals from restorations from forgeries. It's not open to the public, because it's a working research library -- and because some of the pigments in there are rare, historic, or really shouldn't be handled by anyone untrained.

(you can find contact details and social links there too)

[TomScottGo]

I realised, after filming this, that it feels a little weird to have my introduction outside the Museum and the interview inside. But I'm weeks out of Boston now, so it has to stand!

[acrouzet]

3:17 "Lead white is toxic in the way that lead is...toxic."
Best quote in the video.

[cosmicjenny]

Imagine dying, being mummified, and then thousands of years later, getting mushed up and put on a canvas.
There’s donating your body to science, and then there’s whatever this is...

[kieran]

This feels like something someone would start as a hobby, and somehow turned it into a job.

[zappawoman]

I had a dream about a brand new colour I discovered! However, it turned out to be just a pigment of my imagination...

[billysmith]

Going straight from VantaBlack to showing Stuart Semple's Pinkest Pink and Diamond Dust was a move of pure classiness.

[Sypaka]

"When I was 18, i sloppily said: I rather collect colors then go to work"
...
"50 years later, here I am, at this University.
I am the Master of Colors and Pigmentresearch."

[kuronosan]

Haha, just had to get that shot of pinkest pink just after vantablack.

[psychosorcerer]

Glad to see Stuart's Pinkest Pink in there.

[lucweerts]

I study chemistry and one of the best things is when your product turns a colour you have never seen. I had a liquid that was red from the top and green from the side, turns out it was the Tyndall effect.

[mikaelagomez]

My favorite part of this video is seeing Stuart Semple's color creations featured immediately after the Anish Kapoor owned "Vanta-Black." If you're not aware of the awesomely petty but insanely entertaining feud between the two, please look it up.

[MarkWTK]

colour exist

artist: *gotta catch them all*

[iabervon]

Someone else was commenting on vantablack that it was especially odd when it was on crinkled aluminum foil; it absorbs light so well that the foil looks flat because how it looks doesn't depend on the angle of the surface. It looks like a hole in reality or a rendering error rather than a paint color.

[SomeGuyCalledJ]

Stuart Semple's pink is really the pinkest pink I've ever seen (4:36), and is worth buying just to make pink things at home

[leonkoster]

mummie brown = ground up mummie
baby oil = ground up wait what

[itaybron]

when you're not sure if you want to major in chemistry or art so you just do both

[Axalon]

Having a shot of Stuart Semple's "exclusive" dyes seconds after the bit on Vantablack was a class act that you may well never top, Tom.

Well done.

[neilsutcliffe]

I am fascinated by the extinction of Quinacridone Gold. It was discontinued as an artist grade pigment in 2018, as the automotive industry simply stopped using it, and it was no longer available to artists. Artists are a small percentage of the consumers of pigment and we simply get what other industries need.

[DasGanon]

"We have 60 different samples of Hematite"

How awesome would it be if they eventually got a Hematite sample from Mars to add to the collection after some astronaut decides "Hey, I'm going to paint something out of paint I make myself"

[mukrifachri]

Chemistry lab storage + Art gallery. Interesting.