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Aunty Mansa and daughter
Emmanuel Adiamah
Painting - 68.6 x 68.6 x 10.2 cm Painting - 27 x 27 x 4 inch
$8,200
Kermesse
Christiane Simon-Roques
Painting - 65 x 100 x 2 cm Painting - 25.6 x 39.4 x 0.8 inch
$1,470
Planète Mélancolie - livre d’artiste (7)
Julie Ruelle
Print - 28 x 20 x 2.5 cm Print - 11 x 7.9 x 1 inch
$565
Planète Mélancolie - livre d’artiste (6)
Julie Ruelle
Print - 28 x 20 x 2.5 cm Print - 11 x 7.9 x 1 inch
$565
Games People Play
Mikhail Baranovskiy
Painting - 100 x 70 x 3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 27.6 x 1.2 inch
$2,827
Andalouse White (LC77)
Landry Clément
Sculpture - 67 x 23.5 x 4.6 cm Sculpture - 26.4 x 9.3 x 1.8 inch
$2,217
Transcender son esprit
Clara Crespin
Painting - 73 x 50 x 2 cm Painting - 28.7 x 19.7 x 0.8 inch
$2,262
Chamonix
Paul de Chatelperron
Fine Art Drawings - 21 x 36 cm Fine Art Drawings - 8.3 x 14.2 inch
$407
Heavenly Plants No.7
Sumit Mehndiratta
Painting - 114.3 x 83.8 x 5.1 cm Painting - 45 x 33 x 2 inch
$1,131
Heavenly Plants No.6
Sumit Mehndiratta
Painting - 109.2 x 83.8 x 5.1 cm Painting - 43 x 33 x 2 inch
$1,131
Exploflora Series No.69
Sumit Mehndiratta
Painting - 99.1 x 154.9 x 5.1 cm Painting - 39 x 61 x 2 inch
$1,470
Untitled No.104
Sumit Mehndiratta
Painting - 76 x 76 x 3 cm Painting - 29.9 x 29.9 x 1.2 inch
$1,074
Untitled No.106
Sumit Mehndiratta
Painting - 76 x 76 x 3 cm Painting - 29.9 x 29.9 x 1.2 inch
$1,074
Exploflora Series No.68
Sumit Mehndiratta
Painting - 86 x 86 x 3 cm Painting - 33.9 x 33.9 x 1.2 inch
$984
Midday Metamorphosis
Sumit Mehndiratta
Print - 100 x 100 x 3 cm Print - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1.2 inch
$1,018
Dripology No.14
Sumit Mehndiratta
Painting - 113 x 113 x 2 cm Painting - 44.5 x 44.5 x 0.8 inch
$1,244
Place Within Reach 24
Petr Strnad
Painting - 70.2 x 50 x 0.1 cm Painting - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0 inch
$509
Butterfly Park 10
Sumit Mehndiratta
Painting - 65 x 65 x 4 cm Painting - 25.6 x 25.6 x 1.6 inch
$2,036
Dalmatian pelican - Pelecanus crispus
Ivaylo Zafirov
Photography - 37 x 50 cm Photography - 14.6 x 19.7 inch
$237
White Series, Profondeur
Isabelle Fournet
Painting - 90 x 90 x 1 cm Painting - 35.4 x 35.4 x 0.4 inch
$1,640
I just want to talk about how to fix a motorcycle (#04, from the series Blank card)
Gfeller + Hellsgård
Painting - 200 x 150 cm Painting - 78.7 x 59.1 inch
$7,238
Dark Materials VI
James Sparshatt
Photography - 100 x 150 x 2 cm Photography - 39.4 x 59.1 x 0.8 inch
$3,905
This too shall pass
Mikhail Baranovskiy
Painting - 80 x 60 x 2.5 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 1 inch
$2,262
Signs from above
Mikhail Baranovskiy
Painting - 80 x 60 x 2.5 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 1 inch
$1,357
Mots croisés 4
Jean-Claude Byandb
Photography - 85 x 80 x 0.1 cm Photography - 33.5 x 31.5 x 0 inch
$690
Cenizas y diamantes XIX
Cecilia Méndez Casariego
Painting - 45 x 33 x 0.3 cm Painting - 17.7 x 13 x 0.1 inch
$600
Cinematography inspired session #24
Grzegorz Sikorski
Photography - 45 x 60 x 0.1 cm Photography - 17.7 x 23.6 x 0 inch
$215
Sudden view from the window at night
Tanya Sviatlichnaya
Painting - 55.5 x 38 x 0.1 cm Painting - 21.9 x 15 x 0 inch
$905
1918 02, 16
Vygandas Šimbelis (Das Vegas)
Sculpture - 34.5 x 156 x 14 cm Sculpture - 13.6 x 61.4 x 5.5 inch
$6,785
Le bouquet de l’esperance
Valérie Dragacci
Painting - 55 x 45 x 2 cm Painting - 21.7 x 17.7 x 0.8 inch
$1,131
Peace & Freedom Dove (Aluminium Panel)
Shepard Fairey (Obey)
Print - 61 x 61 x 3 cm Print - 24 x 24 x 1.2 inch
$1,131
Journal D'Un Graveur - Vol. 2 Plate 6
Joan Miró
Print - 57 x 45.5 x 0.1 cm Print - 22.4 x 17.9 x 0 inch
$1,583
Alter Ego Token Candelabro
Alessandro Piano
Sculpture - 26 x 13 x 13 cm Sculpture - 10.2 x 5.1 x 5.1 inch
$452
Mini Lady Dior Trash Bag
Chinglish Wang
Sculpture - 19 x 24 x 9 cm Sculpture - 7.5 x 9.4 x 3.5 inch
$9,386
Le blanc géométrique
Isabelle Fournet
Painting - 74 x 95 x 2 cm Painting - 29.1 x 37.4 x 0.8 inch
$1,527
Le vent du printemps
Isabelle Fournet
Painting - 120 x 123 x 2 cm Painting - 47.2 x 48.4 x 0.8 inch
$1,357
Pulse de vie, IV
Isabelle Fournet
Painting - 95 x 270 x 3 cm Painting - 37.4 x 106.3 x 1.2 inch
$1,809
Lionel joue à Bacchus dans les vignes
Pierre Boulat
Photography - 24 x 36 x 0.3 cm Photography - 9.4 x 14.2 x 0.1 inch
$735
The Magic Circle
Giorgio Lo Fermo
Painting - 100 x 100 x 3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1.2 inch
$2,262
Composition No.148
Sumit Mehndiratta
Painting - 94 x 152 x 4 cm Painting - 37 x 59.8 x 1.6 inch
$1,640
Centauros III
Amrita Bilimoria
Photography - 101.6 x 152.4 x 0.5 cm Photography - 40 x 60 x 0.2 inch
$5,500
Silence anticipation
Stanislav Lazarov
Painting - 35 x 35 x 2 cm Painting - 13.8 x 13.8 x 0.8 inch
$396
Place Within Reach 18.
Petr Strnad
Painting - 51 x 40.2 x 0.1 cm Painting - 20.1 x 15.8 x 0 inch
$351
Nailed it series No.163
Sumit Mehndiratta
Sculpture - 65 x 127 x 5 cm Sculpture - 25.6 x 50 x 2 inch
$3,732
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!