The Art Newspaper

It's not easy being blue

Web only
Published online 25 Nov 09

As perhaps the most exciting thing to happen to the colour blue since Yves Klein, chemists at Oregon State University have accidentally created a blue pigment that is both brilliantly hued and hard wearing. According to a report released in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, the researchers were looking at the electronic properties of manganese oxides at high temperatures when a batch of samples came out of the oven a startling shade. “It was blue, a very beautiful blue,” says Mas Subramanian, the Milton Harris Professor of Materials Science in the university’s chemistry department. “I realised immediately that something amazing had happened.” While historically, compounds used to create the colour blue for paint and dyes have been unstable or dangerous—cobalt blue can be carcinogenic, and Prussian blue can release cyanide—this new pigment is safer to produce, can withstand extraordinarily high temperatures and won’t fade even after a week in an acid bath. Get ready to see a lot of artists going through their own "Blue Periods".

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