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Untitled (Snake) (after Keith Haring)
Keith Haring
Design - 80 x 20 x 2 cm Design - 31.5 x 7.9 x 0.8 inch
$325
Cafè in Kiev
Reynold Arnould
Fine Art Drawings - 18 x 26.5 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 7.1 x 10.4 x 0.1 inch
$614
Surf, Sun & Sand XIV
Peter Goodhall
Painting - 77 x 127 x 3 cm Painting - 30.3 x 50 x 1.2 inch
$2,554
Haiti 2014, Jalousie 2
José Nicolas
Photography - 60 x 90 x 1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 35.4 x 0.4 inch
$1,674
Don't forget to look back
Juffrouw Springtouw
Painting - 41 x 31 cm Painting - 16.1 x 12.2 inch
$781
Serie Papelitos Monochrome
Sara Stewart Brown
Painting - 94 x 152 x 1 cm Painting - 37 x 59.8 x 0.4 inch
$9,287
Chaussure / Sans Titre
Meteo Meteo
Fine Art Drawings - 29.7 x 21 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.7 x 8.3 x 0 inch
$73
Bottiglia e matite
Massimiliano Carisdeo
Painting - 60 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 23.6 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
$670
Winter landscape
Dagmara Skubisz
Painting - 60 x 50 x 1.7 cm Painting - 23.6 x 19.7 x 0.7 inch
$2,512
Still life for bird temple #8
Mark Gaskin
Painting - 53.3 x 61 x 5.1 cm Painting - 21 x 24 x 2 inch
$4,000
GRANDIOSE SUMOCAT : WHITE DANCE AND BATTLES OF BALANCE
Hiro Ando
Sculpture - 150 x 180 x 120 cm Sculpture - 59.1 x 70.9 x 47.2 inch
$33,488
Disco volante Boston Terrier
Aperato
Painting - 42 x 60 x 3 cm Painting - 16.5 x 23.6 x 1.2 inch
$1,340
Variation 59 : série de cinq tableaux à structure identique, symétrique et réversible, trouvé par hazard #5
Claude Tousignant
Painting - 121.9 x 243.8 x 5.1 cm Painting - 48 x 96 x 2 inch
$223,255
Losanges en blanc et noir
Claude Tousignant
Painting - 106.7 x 213.4 cm Painting - 42 x 84 inch
$178,604
Signes de désorientations (série)
Patrick Beaulieu
Photography - 27.9 x 35.6 x 0.3 cm Photography - 11 x 14 x 0.1 inch
$1,563
Signes de désorientations (série)
Patrick Beaulieu
Photography - 27.9 x 35.6 x 0.3 cm Photography - 11 x 14 x 0.1 inch
$1,563
Signes de désorientations (série)
Patrick Beaulieu
Photography - 27.9 x 35.6 x 0.3 cm Photography - 11 x 14 x 0.1 inch
$1,563
Gratitude for the every moment
Nadine Antoniuk
Painting - 95 x 125 x 0.1 cm Painting - 37.4 x 49.2 x 0 inch
$2,791
Floor number 9
Jean-Marie Gitard (Mr Strange)
Print - 49 x 49 x 0.1 cm Print - 19.3 x 19.3 x 0 inch
$334
Koomote one: Believing in the freedom of flight
Taira Akiko Hiraguri
Painting - 41 x 41 cm Painting - 16.1 x 16.1 inch
$1,730
3 poires posant pour une nature morte
Sylvie Laliberté
Print - 63.5 x 48.3 x 1.3 cm Print - 25 x 19 x 0.5 inch
$1,228
Pomme pomme pomme poire pomme
Sylvie Laliberté
Print - 63.5 x 48.3 x 1.3 cm Print - 25 x 19 x 0.5 inch
$1,228
Deux chiens là-bas au loin sur le papier
Sylvie Laliberté
Print - 63.5 x 48.3 x 1.3 cm Print - 25 x 19 x 0.5 inch
$1,228
Sans Titre 12 - Ref BDNW9154
Jean-Pierre Stora
Fine Art Drawings - 32 x 25 cm Fine Art Drawings - 12.6 x 9.8 inch
$837
Abstract painting PH877
Radek Smach
Painting - 39.9 x 39.9 x 2 cm Painting - 15.7 x 15.7 x 0.8 inch
$430
L'aviateur - Jeux d'enfants
Nacks
Painting - 50 x 50 x 3.5 cm Painting - 19.7 x 19.7 x 1.4 inch
$781
Ecoute au loin le TAM TAM de mon coeur qui vient vers toi
Lionel Sourisseau
Painting - 36 x 48 x 1 cm Painting - 14.2 x 18.9 x 0.4 inch
$558
Still life with peaches
Aliya Abs
Painting - 100 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
$2,813
The street
Luigi Bompard
Fine Art Drawings - 25.5 x 20 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 10 x 7.9 x 0.1 inch
$625
Reading letter
Luigi Bompard
Fine Art Drawings - 30.5 x 21 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 12 x 8.3 x 0.1 inch
$670
Street comfort
Paul J Bucknall
Photography - 61 x 40.6 x 0.3 cm Photography - 24 x 16 x 0.1 inch
$687
Places (2)
Robbie Cornelissen
Fine Art Drawings - 30.5 x 41.9 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 12 x 16.5 x 0.1 inch
$1,887
Places (1)
Robbie Cornelissen
Fine Art Drawings - 22.9 x 30.5 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 9 x 12 x 0.1 inch
$1,887
Places (underworld)
Robbie Cornelissen
Fine Art Drawings - 25.4 x 33 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 10 x 13 x 0.1 inch
$1,887
Musicians in Lummus Park, Miami Beach
Andy Sweet
Photography - 40 x 40 x 0.1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 15.7 x 0 inch
$1,842
Heart(black and white)-II
Stanislav Bojankov
Painting - 120 x 120 x 2 cm Painting - 47.2 x 47.2 x 0.8 inch
$2,233
Serie Las Piadosas
Enriqueta Aguiló
Painting - 110 x 80 x 3 cm Painting - 43.3 x 31.5 x 1.2 inch
$6,441
Nous ne sommes pas les derniers 203
Zoran Music
Print - 26.5 x 23.5 cm Print - 10.4 x 9.3 inch
$3,349
Io vivo
Yohan Storti
Fine Art Drawings - 29.7 x 41 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.7 x 16.1 x 0 inch
$424
Tu manques
Yohan Storti
Fine Art Drawings - 41 x 29.7 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 16.1 x 11.7 x 0 inch
$424
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!