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

Cage / Sans titre

Break the silence

Hermiona

Untitled

Untitled

Untitled

B&W II

B&W IV

B&W I

Kharkiv

Lyrical Blossoms

Heartfelt Blooming Bear

Cage / Sans titre

Cage / Sans titre

Cage / Sans titre

Cage / Sans titre

Songe revisité

Cage / Sans titre

Giant Chewbacca Chanel N.5

Knar 6

Retour de pêche

Mews

Anamorfosis

Guignol

What we see in others is a reflection of ourselves

Be patient. Some things take time

Strong

Sans titre

Ciudad supuesta CXXX

Ciudad supuesta CLV

Laundromat

Brugmensia arborea

Six Dishes Serie Spighe Spikes Series

Vintage Plate from the Series of Church Domes Cupole d'Italia

Valsesia (black and red)

Ways of Knowledge, Metaphysics series

Nicole

Shapeshifter

The Ceramic Fire Coral (White)

Apporte

Doors - L.A Woman

Goodall

Eastwood

Made in Love

Rubin

Illusion

The Curtain Call

The Lost Overlook

Soprano's Fate

Coracao

Maëva

Gargolas

Black rocket city

Voodoo

Tag 35

Tag 34

Tag 31

Tag 29

Tag 28

Tag 26

Tag 25

Tag 19

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Tag 17

Artistic colorful vase

Ours blanc