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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Chiara Santoro
Painting - 50 x 50 x 1.8 cm Painting - 19.7 x 19.7 x 0.7 inch
$596
Lagune à l'embellie - série Paysage de Nature de Charente-Maritime
Dominique Cahier
Photography - 41 x 58 x 0.1 cm Photography - 16.1 x 22.8 x 0 inch
$882
Panthère cristal (1)
François Rambaud
Sculpture - 55 x 150 x 35 cm Sculpture - 21.7 x 59.1 x 13.8 inch
$16,094
Juste un instant 880 N° 11
Serge Rat
Painting - 80 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
$1,669
Olivier (ALB75)
Alain Le Boucher
Sculpture - 18 x 30 x 7 cm Sculpture - 7.1 x 11.8 x 2.8 inch
$2,921
Deep Bless (les dents de la mère)
FabEnt (Fabrice Entemeyer)
Sculpture - 25 x 12 x 11 cm Sculpture - 9.8 x 4.7 x 4.3 inch
$834
Decoration
Tako Chanchaleishvili
Fine Art Drawings - 20 x 41 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 7.9 x 16.1 x 0 inch
$656
Infinite randomness II, I
Björk Viggósdóttir
Sculpture - 17 x 6 x 3 cm Sculpture - 6.7 x 2.4 x 1.2 inch
$1,431
200 m à l'eau pékinoise en 102 secondes 96
Stéphanie Guglielmetti
Sculpture - 32 x 32 x 2.5 cm Sculpture - 12.6 x 12.6 x 1 inch
$2,146
Série : Se faire passer pour Mao
Nathalie Daoust
Photography - 60 x 90 cm Photography - 23.6 x 35.4 inch
$2,980
Invisible Narratives 8.
Petr Strnad
Fine Art Drawings - 30 x 40 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.8 x 15.7 x 0 inch
$381
Roofs in Paris in the Snow
Michel Delacroix
Print - 50 x 60 x 0.1 cm Print - 19.7 x 23.6 x 0 inch
$2,217
Green&glass
Elisabeth de Chérisey
Painting - 100 x 100 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 0.8 inch
$3,576
La Petite Fille
Edgar Degas
Sculpture - 100 x 55 x 55 cm Sculpture - 39.4 x 21.7 x 21.7 inch
$41,724
El papel como materia y el hilo como símbolo
Francesca Poza
Painting - 65 x 65 cm Painting - 25.6 x 25.6 inch
$3,457
Monsieur le Jour, Madame la Nuit
Günter Grass
Print - 50 x 65 x 0.1 cm Print - 19.7 x 25.6 x 0 inch
$656
Vanity tribute to Andy
Ron English
Sculpture - 68 x 54 x 45 cm Sculpture - 26.8 x 21.3 x 17.7 inch
$16,094
Readers series - Philosophy of money
Nikolaus von Wolff
Print - 50 x 50 x 0.1 cm Print - 19.7 x 19.7 x 0 inch
$954
La fille de Kazan - Portrait de femme
Anthony Shagan
Painting - 61 x 46 x 4 cm Painting - 24 x 18.1 x 1.6 inch
$2,325
White CH Tribute Candy
Julie Jaler
Sculpture - 40 x 20 x 20 cm Sculpture - 15.7 x 7.9 x 7.9 inch
$834
Fille aux sacs poubelles
Eugenia Jaeger
Fine Art Drawings - 50 x 70 cm Fine Art Drawings - 19.7 x 27.6 inch
$954
Joie - Série portrait graphique
Violeta Mouysset dite Mvili
Painting - 80 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
$1,192
Faye Dunaway at the Pool, Lying Down (posthumous print) (S)
Terry O'Neill
Photography - 76.2 x 76.2 cm Photography - 30 x 30 inch
$5,600
King Kong Balls Blanc
Denis Defrancesco
Sculpture - 11 x 25 x 11 cm Sculpture - 4.3 x 9.8 x 4.3 inch
$1,788
Television Antenna
Domenico Purificato
Painting - 35.6 x 25.3 x 0.1 cm Painting - 14 x 10 x 0 inch
$596
Without identity
Maurizio Gracceva
Fine Art Drawings - 103 x 72 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 40.6 x 28.3 x 0 inch
$1,788
A Couple
Jeanne Daour
Fine Art Drawings - 14.7 x 21 x 0.4 cm Fine Art Drawings - 5.8 x 8.3 x 0.2 inch
$596
Przywilej (privilege)
Bartlomiej Zalucki
Painting - 100 x 100 x 1 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 0.4 inch
$3,398
Tempête tropicale - Paysage abstrait
Nicole Gérard
Painting - 92 x 73 x 2 cm Painting - 36.2 x 28.7 x 0.8 inch
$1,639
Sans-titre
Loïc Le Groumellec
Fine Art Drawings - 23 x 20 cm Fine Art Drawings - 9.1 x 7.9 inch
$1,729
King Pop Black
Monsieur Mollotov
Sculpture - 40 x 24 x 40 cm Sculpture - 15.7 x 9.4 x 15.7 inch
$703
Peace Me Off Parallel World
Sinao
Painting - 80 x 75 x 1.5 cm Painting - 31.5 x 29.5 x 0.6 inch
$2,730
Signature 16
Catherine Cazau
Fine Art Drawings - 50 x 45 cm Fine Art Drawings - 19.7 x 17.7 inch
$632
The dark side of the light
Jérôme Garrido
Painting - 100 x 100 x 2.5 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1 inch
$1,013