#source of the email

[papermariosuggestion]

[spikeisawesome456]

Hey guys!

So, I don't tend to make posts on here, but this is something I was made aware of recently, but haven't seen anything about it on Tumblr, so I figured I would make a post to try and raise awareness and see if something can be done. Especially since it's kind of a niche topic.

So... what's going on, I virtually hear you ask? Well...

The artist Stuart Semple has been sued.

Now... who is Stuart Semple, and why is this important?

If you're chronically on Tumblr and have been here for over a decade (like myself), you may remember Stuart Semple as the artist who had a beef with another artist named Amish Kapoor, who had trademarked the world's "blackest black," called Vantablack, and was being kind of a dick about it. (Scroll down that post a bunch to see the information about the beef. This is how I learned about the beef years ago, so I felt it was important to add.)

Semple believes that art should be accessible to everyone, and that no one should gatekeep art. As such, he went on a mission to create an even blacker black, and make it accessible to everyone. Which, by the by, he has done! Multiple times over! He's also legally changed his name to Amish Kapoor, but that is neither here nor there.

Awesome! Now y'all know all this information about Amish Kapoor (formerly known as Stuart Semple, though this post will still be using his former (?) name to avoid confusion) and his beef with Amish Kapoor (asshole gatekeeping artist)! Super!

Now, forget all about that. Because this is actually about a different artist, one known by the name Yves Klein. Or, perhaps more accurately... his estate.

The lawsuit.

So, in addition to having beef with Amish Kapoor, Semple also endeavors to make art accessible for everyone by making other patented colors available to the general public. This includes the color of blue patented by the late artist Yves Klein.

To make it clear, Semple's color of blue is chemically different to Klein's color of blue. Even Klein's estate has acknowledged this. That's not what the lawsuit is about.

So... what is the lawsuit about?

The fact that Semple used the name Klein on the packaging, and that he painted his hand blue.

That's it. That's all. Not the fact it's the same color, not the fact that it's infringing on the patent, or whatever. No. Klein's estate claims that they own the trademark for... the name "Klein." Never mind the fact that there is a VERY WELL KNOWN fashion company that uses the name Klein in it that Semple has acknowledged was the inspiration for the design of the packaging for the paint. *COUGH COUGH, CALVIN KLEIN, COUGH COUGH.*

The worst part about all of this? Semple wasn't even allowed to defend himself in court. Klein's estate (which I believe is managed by his son) sued him in secret in a Paris court without his knowledge, and he wasn't even allowed the ability to defend himself. He was just given the order to pay the money, with no chance to defend himself at all. Yes, he's able to appeal the lawsuit, but that costs both time and money.

Why is this important?

Well, I suppose that's up to you, really. But to me, it's really the principle of the matter. Semple has dedicated his life to making art accessible to the public, and as an artist myself, I respect this desire. And the fact he was sued without his knowledge, without the ability to even defend himself?

Well. It rankles me, to be frank.

Art should be accessible to everyone. Period. No person should gatekeep art, and to sue an artist trying to make art accessible, over a fricken common last name? Especially without allowing them to defend themself? ESPECIALLY WHEN THE PERSON SUING ISN'T EVEN THE ARTIST THEMSELF, BUT THEIR GREEDY ESTATE?

It's absolutely ridiculous, and I think something about be done, if possible. At least it should be known about, since the only reason I know is because I'm on Semple's company's mailing list, which I know not everyone is.

What can you do about this?

A decent amount, really!

The smallest thing to do is to share this post, if you can, to raise awareness. It's a very niche topic that I've not really heard about other than through the aforementioned mailing list, and I think raising awareness will at least help, if nothing else. The more people who know, the better.

The next thing you can do is donate to Semple's GoFundMe for his legal expenses. He needs to raise £60,000, and as of this post (May 16th, 2025) he has only raised £9,410, less than 20% of what he needs. This way, he can at least try to fight this outrageous suit.

Another thing you can do is sign this petition created by a supporter of Semple's, which is calling to suspend all of Yves Klein's exhibitions until his estate stops suing living artists. I'm not entirely sure how much this will help, but Semple himself shared it in another of his emails, so it's an option, at least.

Also, you could, if you're obscenely rich, purchase one of these paintings, but since they're like... almost 30 grand each, I don't think that's an option for the average Tumblr user, aha. You could also buy one of these t-shirts, which are still a bit pricey at $41 USD, but the proceeds directly go towards his legal proceedings.

Finally, he does have his company, Culture Hustle, which has a lot of cool art paints and pigments for the average artist, if you're so inclined, including the infamous blue paint that sparked this whole debacle. Supporting him here will help overall, and you can get some super cool, highly pigmented paint or raw pigment itself, if that's your jam. Personally, I like the pigments for my resin art. Really, I suggest looking around the site, it has a ton of super cool paints and pigments that I wish I was able to afford all of.

In conclusion.

Like every good essay, here's my final thoughts on all of this. Personally, I think it's bullshit that this is happening. I don't know Stuart Semple personally, and for all I know he's actually a terrible person who tortures puppies in his free time, who knows. I mean, I highly, HIGHLY doubt it, but anything's possible, and on Tumblr I know there are always people who love to "um, actually" literally everything.

But that's not the point.

The point is that this sets a precedent for the decedents of great artists (not even the artists themselves!) to sue living artists for bullshit reasons that have nothing to do with anything meaningful. It allows them to sue an artist who has dedicated his life to making art accessible, not allow him the right to defend himself, and think that the name of their great relative means they can bully any and everyone. If they're going to sue Semple over something simple as using a common last name on his paint, and painting his hand blue, what else would they secretly sue over, hoping their target is unable to afford the hefty international legal fees needed to counter their ridiculous claims?

It's the principle of the matter to me, more so than Semple himself. Don't get me wrong, I do like Semple from what I've seen (barring any unknown to me puppy torture that I'm sure some random Tumblr user will be all too willing to harass me over for somehow not knowing...), but I'm more affronted by the principle and the precedent this allows. As an artist myself, I despise the idea that something simple like trying to make art accessible is being attacked.

Because, let's be clear.

The Klein estate doesn't care about Semple using the name Klein or that he painted his hand blue. I'm sure they know that it's a ridiculous argument and they don't care about it whatsoever. What they want to stop is Semple selling his blue paint, which they can't touch since it's chemically different from their late relative's patented color. This is emphasized by the fact that they tried to have the judge seize and destroy every bottle of the paint created, which the judge thankfully denied.

Please. If you care about art being accessible, and about preventing greedy relatives of great artists from throwing their weight around for no reason other than they can... please share this post. Let the world know what Klein's estate is doing.

(Oh, and if you want something that Semple has done that is arguably great, other than trying to make art accessible, he helped with a campaign to protest the fact that gay men are not allowed to donate blood in the US. He took blood from gay men and created ink from it, which he then sold in various mediums, to show that it's not this scary, dangerous thing that the FDA makes it out to be. Which I personally think is pretty neat.)

UPDATE: Here's a link to another Tumblr post I made with the screenshots to the original email Semple's company, Culture Hustle, sent out. So y'all can see my source for the lawsuit information.

[repmet]

@rwrbmovie & @rwrbsource’s rwrbweek: Day 4 | Little Detail

[therighthandofvengeance]

If Delenn of Mir can prevent battles and stop wars by speaking, then I can write this email

[sallymew4]

stageplay shouteru is a whole other beast

fun little extras below cut vvv

look. they are holding hands

[vilsoo]

is it a safe space to say we should bring back assassinations cuz literally our us government is just incompetent asf

mass shootings happen every day, womens rights are being taken away, ppl are living off minimum wage, the housing costs are just dreadful, cop cities are being funded, a genocide is going on and thousands of palestinian kids are dead but yeah lets just ban tiktok!! that'll solve all our problems <33

[hippo-pot]

Work was paused last month when Interior Secretary Doug Burgum directed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to halt construction and review the permits. Burgum said at the time that it appeared former President Joe Biden's administration had "rushed through" the approvals. Equinor spent seven years obtaining permits and has spent more than $2.5 billion so far on a project that is one-third complete...

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said it took countless conversations with Equinor and White House officials, and the involvement of labor and business interests, to emphasize the project's importance and get Empire Wind back on track.

"New York's economic future is going to be powered by abundant, clean energy that helps our homes and businesses thrive. I fought to save clean energy jobs in New York — and we got it done," Hochul said in a statement Monday.

[cookinguptales]

my dad just emailed me this and I'm sorry to say this boomer meme totally checks out.

[officialspec]

hey this is a little random BUT i have heard good reviews of dr steven merten at pure aesthetics in sydney!! My husbands psychologist went there, has had lots of good reviews from bigger folks. He doesnt take bmi into account and also is specifically good at sculpting larger chests so you don't end up with dog ears and needing revisions. best of luck though i know its a nightmare <3

i have him on the backburner as an option! my main issues atm are that he only does in-person consults and i got quoted like 14k with insurance (20k without) which is double my current option..... but ive heard good things

[ratcandy]

My Deltarune experience is so fun (and apparently novel) because I don't look at popular theories nor do I pay attention to any lore provided in outside content (the newsletters, sweepstakes, etc). Both of these things are intentional and I'm doing it on purpose and it's great because everything is a surprise and I don't have any prior expectations about what should or shouldn't happen.

But it also puts me in a situation where I don't think I can speculate/analyze much with other people because That is Not How Other People Are Doing It. And that's totally fair. You're looking at extra puzzle pieces and I'm not. It's just like . Something I sit with hksljdhgjh

[littencloud9]

why the fuck is she so STUPID

[xxplastic-cubexx]

What's ur presentation all about...? Am scared /lh

funnily enough it's about the ADA/americans-with-disabilities act :^)

[electricea]

oh my god, the package i've been waiting on for weeks finally shipped!

[oxymoronicdumbass]

if i have to sit through one more conversation in which i have to listen to someone chirp about the benefits of AI, i am going to stab someone

[tanumaskoipond]

there’s this one archaeologist i know and well he’s genuinely a really cool person but he also has the best name i’ve ever heard and i wish i could steal it.

[ceaseless-rambler]

Okay in regards to this poll I'm going to do some Doc Carmilla analysis because I don't like having back and forth conversations in tags. This is long, I couldn't really find a way to cut it down

The biggest thing that fucks me up about her is Brian's morality switch. The concept of a morality switch at all is horrifying to me, taking that control away from someone. Brian's about page on the mechanisms website says the reasoning was because Doctor Carmilla found it "amusing" which. Makes me hate it even more. @x-ca1iber pointed out the fact that Jonny is an unreliable narrator, which is a good point. However, I doubt Jonny wrote everyone's bio and I don't think either morality mode would really let Brian lie about it, lying is wrong and I can't come up with ends that would justify it. Brian could be wrong about reasoning, of course, but I'm not sure why he would be. Because a lot of that second half is speculation, *please* let me know if there's anything to agree or disagree with any of it.

The two other things that make me not willing to chalk all of anti-Doctor Carmilla sentiment up to unreliable narration and character misinterpretation are the end of this video and near the end of Lashings. The first video shows Jonny cut the music and, sounding somewhat frantic, ask Carmilla what she's going to do about being thrown out the airlock. When she doesn't respond, he backs away and accuses her of planning something. This is something that isn't attributable to unreliable narration because the premise there isn't that it's a retelling but an actual event occurring. Also, the way Jonny is on edge, expecting her to do something but not knowing what/when and having to just kind of act like it's fine really makes me read it as a bad relationship for him. The end of the Lashings performance shows Nastya stressed about various other things and Doctor Carmilla coming up behind her and hugging her. Nastya visibly tenses and remains as such for the entire interaction. I've seen people argue that this was due to the aforementioned various other things, and it could very much be that! This is definitely my least compelling piece of evidence. But it's worth noting that Doctor Carmilla doesn't back off from the hug and remains sort of in Nastya's face until Nastya steps away. The situation is either Nastya being generally uncomfortable with physical contact at that moment (or in general) and Carmilla not caring, or Nastya being distrustful of her in general. Either way doesn't reflect well on their relationship.

None of this is to say that I think she's trying to cause them harm. She does see them as her kids, in her own way. The only other close relationship she had that I'm aware of is Lorelai (please let me know if you have any more information on this! I'm always open to corrections) and that wasn't exactly healthy. She could very well not know any other way to treat them, and I really do think she meant well. The problem with meaning well is that is doesn't change the ramifications of your actions. The best of intentions don't change the fact that you hurt people. This is, in my opinion, especially prominent in parental figures, which she is.

That is all about her as a person, though. As a character? She's fantastic. Trans lesbian vampire scientist with dubious ethics? Great!!! And all of the things I just talked about that make me dislike her as a person make me love her as a character. That disparity is what makes it really hard to answer the poll I linked at the beginning, because holy fuck morality switch but I love her as a character

Tags that inspired this under the cut