White

In physics, white is the sum of all the colours. To the human eye, white appears to be the total absence of colour. Amongst artists, white and its many uses in art are continuously evolving and challenging those who would embrace them. Is white, then, a non-colour, or an enhancer of colours? Intangible or material? Absence or excess?

Since Antiquity, white has been appreciated for its symbolic value. In Ancient Greece, where they would paint their statues, it was a sign of incompletion, whereas the Romans believed it showed pomp and imperialist virtue. With the rise of Christianity, white was used in opposition to black in order to emphasise moral dichotomies: the pure, divine white against the darkness. In some cases, however, white was used to show sickness or death, most notably in the pallid representations of the skeletal, crucified Christ.

In the Renaissance white was used to sublimate faces and backgrounds. Da Vinci even based his sfumato technique on the soft transition from light into darkness. Throughout the history of painting, white was considered precious for its ability to reflect light. It attracts the gaze even when used in the tiniest quantities, and illuminates the subject, drawing out stunning contrasts as seen in the works of Rembrandt, or in Vermeer's famous Girl with the Pearl Earring.

With the rise of Impressionism, white was used as the brightest tone amongst shades of grey. While Manet produced canvases which were forerunners to monochromes, including The Reader, which was almost pure white, Monet delivered a stunning gradient of whites whilst recreating the snow at his home in Giverny. The first true white monochrome appeared with the arrival of Malevitch's White Square on a White Background. The artist said 'I have broken the blue boundary of colour limits, and come out into the white'.

Modernists were equally passionate about white and valued it incredibly highly. Miro in particular questioned the status of white on canvases. In his painting Woman, Bird and Star white is in parts boldly painted, but is also distinctive for its absence around the star. Picasso, on the other hand, explored white in conjunction with his famous coloured periods. Piero Manzoni became famous thanks to his 'achromatic' paintings, a series of canvases produced exclusively in shades of white. Moving into the 20th century, white became synonymous with minimalist abstraction. For artists like Kandinsky, white was a cosmic colour, associated with a spiritual search for the absolute, guiding the artists as he seek to express his emotions.

Today, white remains an ever popular subject. Roman Opalka made his name creating a series of white numbers of a white background, while Daniel Arsham reinvents white walls in galleries by letting his artwork drip down onto them. White is a colour with multiple symbolic interpretations. The colour of divinity or humility; of purity and immaculate, of emptiness and absence, but always colour. If blue has Klein and red has Rothko, it appears that no artist has yet succeeded in fully mastering white – but maybe you'll find them in our selection!

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Categories

Subcategories

White

Patience

Animales

Le chat sauvage

Primordial

Husky

Tetris

Childhood

Hochwasser

Woman walking with a dog

Majestic Lion Sculpture

35cm CH Tribute, Full Black Teddy

Sheep Portfolio 1

La toque ou la plume

Untitled

Dog Chanel

Tigre du Bengale. Inde

Cats

35cm CH Tribute, bi color white and gold Teddy

Léopard

Standing bear

Même profil

Dans la brume

Tilolo

Gold Flight

Happy Hours

Ours enlacés / Two bears entwined

Bride and Groom

White butterfly, bronze stripe

Swans 2

Cookie

My Lovely Dog

Snoozing in Sunshine

Deer

Poules et poulailler. Sénégal

Girafe et ses poursuivants. Parc de Tarangire. Tanzanie

Seul dans la savane. Parc du Ngorongoro. Tanzanie

Girafe et girafon. Tanzanie

Pand'ours pop art Dior red

Polar bear white

Bride and Groom

Camo Moth

White sheep

Bird

Timeless Equestrian Elegance Sculpture

Supreme Lion

Tete Ours

Zèbre

Dreams-III

Dreams-II

Dreams-I

SERENITY-III

SERENITY-II

Joy-I

Cavaliers blancs

2 Glisten

Double Doubt

Falcon

35cm Teddy CH Tribute, Chrome White

Portrait PUG - French school - Where is my body 03 Chut les Barbizons! NSWE

Portrait Siberian Kitten Cat - French school

Kong x Air Jordan

C. Z. Guest

Love (boat)

Cabbage Patch 5

Panthère résine blanche 110 cm

Standing wild bear