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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Subcategories

White

Modern peonies

Fragile

Les Grands Chefs étoilés

Recette Foie gras au torchon

Seascape

Espiègles - Scène de vie figurative sur le thème de l'enfance

Planètes META / META Planets

Everybody has his own dance II

Boy

Sans titre

Chemin

La Joconde

Father and Child

Silent script

Frequency counter

Ballerina

Groupe de cinq manchots

Panthère des neiges fouaillant de la queue

Her no. 28

Capri, Marina piccola

Green Heels

Musicien

Je t'aime, moi non plus

Sans titre

Picsu Diamond white (1/8)

L'univers / The universe 1/12

Atelier Buffet - Scène de vie figurative

Oblitération

Sea sunset swell n*8 - Italian painting

Blue Winter

Caresse tempérée

Solanum

Stay steel

Your freedom

Recto/Verso

Colonial doorway

Monochrome lilies

Morning dream

Aelys

Georges Charrier, enfant de cœur cassé

Master of mystery

Sunday morning

Balance

Entre el Cielo y la Tierra III

What Does This Gaze Hide?

5 D

On those beautiful summer days

Another life is possible

Les Tournesols

Alter Ego

70' - 80' MyGeneration

Chahrazed

Hariette

Outside their box, out of the lines

Her Cat

Blue Window

Le sculpteur face à son modèle

The Moonlight Flight Together

Handsome stockings

A different point of view II

En avant les soucis

Life couch

Are words living spirits on paper?

Some Letters Rejected to the Sender

Nu féminin

Morning bliss on the Amalfi Coast