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Noises From the Outside
Lukasz Olek
Painting - 100 x 70 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 27.6 x 0.8 inch
$2,466
Alpilles
Agnès Tiollier
Fine Art Drawings - 50 x 70 x 0.18 cm Fine Art Drawings - 19.7 x 27.6 x 0.1 inch
$897
Intimate explosion
Michael Alan
Fine Art Drawings - 33 x 27.9 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 13 x 11 x 0.04 inch
$3,027
Desert signe LV (SG246)
Sylvie Guyomard
Sculpture - 40 x 50 x 5 cm Sculpture - 15.7 x 19.7 x 2 inch
$549
Desert signe LIII (SG244)
Sylvie Guyomard
Sculpture - 50 x 40 x 5 cm Sculpture - 19.7 x 15.7 x 2 inch
$437
Un été outre-mer - série Les Dames de la côte
Françoise Lucq
Painting - 40 x 60 x 1 cm Painting - 15.7 x 23.6 x 0.4 inch
$1,099
Right from the source
Manuela Karin Knaut
Painting - 125 x 125 x 4 cm Painting - 49.2 x 49.2 x 1.6 inch
$5,833
Louis Vitton n°6
Parscha Mirghawameddin
Painting - 146 x 114 x 2 cm Painting - 57.5 x 44.9 x 0.8 inch
$1,682
Close Touching God
Mattia Novello
Sculpture - 71.1 x 71.1 x 5.1 cm Sculpture - 28 x 28 x 2 inch
$8,000
Women
Kirill Postovit
Fine Art Drawings - 20.5 x 25 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 8.1 x 9.8 x 0 inch
$3,016
Élément jaune (PM15)
Palmi Marzaroli
Painting - 49 x 63 x 0.2 cm Painting - 19.3 x 24.8 x 0.1 inch
$2,579
HEtresencompagnie #09
Corinne Bresson
Photography - 40 x 40 x 4 cm Photography - 15.7 x 15.7 x 1.6 inch
$504
Titty et Coucou au marché, Saint-Denis
Enfant Précoce / Francis Essoua Kalu
Painting - 180 x 156 x 2 cm Painting - 70.9 x 61.4 x 0.8 inch
$15,695
Cheveux de comète
Anne-Marie Mary
Painting - 90 x 90 x 2.5 cm Painting - 35.4 x 35.4 x 1 inch
$2,780
Siestes short ancres marines
Pascal Astier
Painting - 60 x 120 x 2.5 cm Painting - 23.6 x 47.2 x 1 inch
$2,242
Shadow Guzzler nr. 2
Marek Uhlir
Painting - 70.1 x 59.9 x 2.5 cm Painting - 27.6 x 23.6 x 1 inch
$750
Among the White Birch
Lee Passarella
Painting - 45.7 x 45.7 x 6.4 cm Painting - 18 x 18 x 2.5 inch
$875
Have you seen the moon tonight? 3
Laura Spring
Painting - 50.8 x 50.8 x 2 cm Painting - 20 x 20 x 0.8 inch
$600
Restaurant place des Vosges
Jeff Bayley
Painting - 80 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
$673
Mémoire du Temps 46
Anne-Marie Mary
Painting - 80 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
$2,422
Mémoire du temps n° 41 : Archéologie du temps
Anne-Marie Mary
Painting - 146 x 114 x 3.5 cm Painting - 57.5 x 44.9 x 1.4 inch
$5,594
Mémoire du temps n° 42
Anne-Marie Mary
Painting - 100 x 100 x 2.5 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1 inch
$4,014
L'énigme de l'attachement Ghost Town Part I & II
Kevin-Ademola Sangosanya
Painting - 60 x 42.5 x 4 cm Painting - 23.6 x 16.7 x 1.6 inch
$2,018
Mémoire oubliée N°12
Anne-Marie Mary
Painting - 120 x 120 x 3 cm Painting - 47.2 x 47.2 x 1.2 inch
$4,473
HK fragments IV
Sven Pfrommer
Photography - 100 x 100 x 3 cm Photography - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1.2 inch
$2,119
Temporary Shelter
Teona Yamanidze
Painting - 50 x 50 x 3 cm Painting - 19.7 x 19.7 x 1.2 inch
$3,139
Village en Hiver (Vosges) - série Paysage
Marie-Thérèse Chanel
Painting - 46 x 61 x 2 cm Painting - 18.1 x 24 x 0.8 inch
$1,233
Open Heart Restart
Seema Mathew
Painting - 55 x 80 x 0.3 cm Painting - 21.7 x 31.5 x 0.1 inch
$1,805
JR au Palais de Tokyo, 28 Août 2020, 16H12, Paris
JR
Print - 100 x 70 x 0.1 cm Print - 39.4 x 27.6 x 0 inch
$2,567
O3A-B, 2018 (Abstract painting)
Daniel Göttin
Painting - 30 x 40 x 2 cm Painting - 11.8 x 15.7 x 0.8 inch
$4,242
DB5 Aston Martin
Angélique Dufossé
Painting - 50 x 100 x 2 cm Painting - 19.7 x 39.4 x 0.8 inch
$1,783
Les danseurs marins d'azur - Paysage marin de La Nouvelle Calédonie
Caroline Degroiselle
Painting - 40 x 40 x 3.5 cm Painting - 15.7 x 15.7 x 1.4 inch
$1,542
Le phare maître joueur des vagues - Paysage marin de la Nouvelle Calédonie
Caroline Degroiselle
Painting - 30 x 30 x 3.5 cm Painting - 11.8 x 11.8 x 1.4 inch
$1,054
Pomme d'amour
Virginia Benedicto
Sculpture - 30 x 25 x 25 cm Sculpture - 11.8 x 9.8 x 9.8 inch
$2,130
Chasser les mouettes
Hélène Legrand
Painting - 32 x 24 x 2 cm Painting - 12.6 x 9.4 x 0.8 inch
$1,233
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!