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

Fours traditionnel à bois pour le porcelaine

Ombre et lumière 7

Ombre et lumière I

Atelier de porcelaine I

Autoportrait

Grâce immolée

Conversation

Ombre et lumière III

Shakespeare

Mémoire de JingDeZhen

Ombre et lumière #5

Ombre et lumière II

Groupe

Autoroute

Éolienne

Neige

En route VIII

En route VII

Zirkulationszeit: Kopf H.B.

Nature morte

Neige 2

Empire State

Saut 1

Passage

Partial cloud-like pictogram

Chaines syllabes

Roche nue

Reflexions

Landscape

Composition pour les JO

Petit Rhino

Rhinocopter

Untitled #29

Untitled #1

Iago

Paysage intime-V

Paysage intime-VI

Le jardin des supplices

Manchas de luz I

Les pigeons

Le pied dé

Untitled #42

Sans titre

Âlif - Clou cristal

Paysage intime-II

Paysage intime-I

Kakémono BIOS-PG-IX

The Journey I

Bird

French Art History (A)

French Art History (C)

Spring love

The Water Carrier

The Journey II

Without title

Tête de Ventasuso

Taos III

Iguazu

Sculpture Shetani Homme Sage

Le p'tit pull

El Bolso

Marilyn. La sortie de bain. (1945)

Schwurhand: Frau rennt weg mit Gehirn

Untitled 126

Untitled 133

Blossoming Dreams