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

Painter Can

Moto

Home Alone

Le Mans diptyque

DeLorean

Art Lovers hand finished

Jerrican chanel white

Rocketman - collection spéciale Grands Formats

Coco Pop

Snoopy Comic Strip Reverso 1977 Série 2

Le train de l'amour

Lil Heroes #3493 (Unique with drawing)

Sculpture Chien Arty

Sauvage

Mona Lisa

Grosminet

We All Make the Flowers Grow III (White)

Love Bleu Ciel

My Real Doggs (RIP Nate Doggs)

MC Caviar Courchevel

About Happiness

Falling Stars Les pids des reves- Tom & Jerry

Pojukx

Marilyn

Cocacola 6

Trooper peinture sur Edition Hors série.

L'annee du dragon

Marilyn I

Blackout Beauty

The Girl's Own Paper, 1885

Golden David Design

Luana

Sting like a bee

Chanel B.B. Mickey

Fragile #1

Hope

8 - Mickey

White CH Tribute Candy

Vanity tribute to Andy

Joie - Série portrait graphique

Tourist Penguino

Crouch end

Shopping Heads 1

Baby Bos white

If you don't stand for something

The Thinker

Iconic Gameboy Nike - Blanc et rouge - Nintendo

Droopy Dog Abstraction

Tower Brick Bridge

Hayu

Black Burger CH Tribute

Submission

Train

Study for NULL (Does appearance produce bias #076)

ST-II

Broken Button

La Victoire de Samothrace

Voiturette vintage blanche

Banc Skate

Plan de Métro Londres

Mario Black, Ch Tribute

Kaleidoskop

Snoopy

Art's Cubes - Rubik Cube CD Tribute

Audith Rhodes

Croquis de Ned Flanders