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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White

Jean Michel Basquiat

Illusions

Opulence

Bear_B

Apartment in the Upper East Side, featuring a painting by Yoshitomo Nara.

Same Page

Flight

Glazed ceramic.

Mad things only

Yumi2 : Chiseled Allure and Graceful Pose

Chair Jazz

Leaving The World Behind

Fly Over Wide Fields

All Will Be Good II

Liberté en Liberté

Savoring Sun

The Great Beyond

Leaving The World Behind

Jump II

Leaving The World Behind (Papyrus)

The Great Beyond

Leaving The World Behind

Neptune

Leaving The World Behind

All Things Begin and End in Eternity

Drifting

A Pulp Fiction pop art tribute

Style Mondrian Triptyque

We Don't Need No Education

Tetris

Magnolia

Primordial

Lucky Luke on Keith's Dog (plan du métro de Paris)

What Party White

Skull in the Meditation with Neon Design

Divided Hercule

35cm CH Tribute, Full Black Teddy

Love You

Spatio-temporel

Every day is a gift

Pop Artstrong

Medusas’ Protective Gaze

Dog Save the Queen

Acquisition

Pop Snoopy

Atlas & Gold Glove

White Astronout

Hercules in Flight

David in Meditation with Neon Design

Forever Young

Kiss Me

Dream gallery (cattelan, Cindy Sherman, galerie perrotin) black

Snoopy

Inner Beauty The White Supreme

Daft Punk Red Angel

Teddy Dior

Dollar James Bond

Natures Mortes

Marilyn

X-men Tornade - Storm

We Don't Need No Education

Peace Out Astronaut

The 50

35cm CH Tribute, bi color white and gold Teddy

Pop Artstrong

Standing bear