Image Courtesy of Wikipedia
Made of rare earth elements, YInMn Blue is extremely costly.
Will the hefty price tag deter artists and art studios?
YInMn Blue, a sparkling pigment discovered at the Oregon State University Lab in 2009, is finally on its way to the art studios. The pigment—the first new blue to be discovered in 200 years—was recently granted permission for consumer use by the Environmental Protection Agency in May. Chemist Mas Subramanian and his team came to this discovery unintentionally while conducting experiments with rare earth elements as part of their work with electronics.
Subramanian has since turned his attention to pigments. He is experimenting with the elements in a trial-and-error process that he hopes will someday produce a new red pigment. But nothing he’s ever seen has been as breathtaking as YInMn Blue. (Pigment is named after the elements Yttrium, Indium, and Manganese.)
There were barriers that had to be cleared before the pigment could be brought to the consumer market. Even though YInMn Blue has been permitted for use for industrial applications in plastics since September 2017, the nation’s art manufacturers had to be somewhat more patient.
“For industrial use, it’s easier—when it comes to consumer use, it requires much more rigorous testing,” Subramanian explained. “It’s hard to convince the EPA.” Although YInMn Blue has finally met the test criteria of the United States Toxic Substances Control Act. It is only approved for sale as a finished paint, not as a dry pigment powder.
YInMn Blue remains extremely expensive and relatively rare.
Gail Fishback of Maine’s Italian Art Shop, the only US retailer distributing Derivan’s YInMn Blue paint, has said that her studio artists are not buying the paint in large numbers as the cost is nearly 20 times as expensive as most of the acrylic paint tube in her store. The store sells a 40 ml. tube of YInMn paint for $179.40. By comparison, a 75ml. tube of acrylic paint normally sells for $9.00. That sticker shock is unlikely to go away anytime soon.
Many art suppliers have decided not to incorporate YInMn Blue into their product line after evaluating the pigment. For many, the cost of the pigment in comparison to its benefits to artists is still too high. The largest art supply manufacturers have opted to sell the pigment solely through specialty markets. Normally they sell their paints through retail art supply stores.
Learn more about chemist Mas Subramanian on TEDx and the New Blue Pigment YInMn – and its potential influence on the art world
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