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A canter a bailar
Marcello Cid Saint Jean
Painting - 80 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
$543
Reveiller White
Carola Orieta-Sperman
Sculpture - 82 x 74 x 79 cm Sculpture - 32.3 x 29.1 x 31.1 inch
$12,144
Udako Solstizioa (Summer Solstice), Conceptual Painting
Alberto Letamendi
Painting - 100.3 x 100.3 x 5.1 cm Painting - 39.5 x 39.5 x 2 inch
$6,000
Chinese Interior #20
Robert van der Hilst
Photography - 49 x 42 cm Photography - 19.3 x 16.5 inch
$2,036
Chinese Interior #48
Robert van der Hilst
Photography - 42 x 49 cm Photography - 16.5 x 19.3 inch
$2,036
Chinese Interior #36
Robert van der Hilst
Photography - 42 x 49 cm Photography - 16.5 x 19.3 inch
$2,036
Delirio Exótico #11
Paloma Castello
Photography - 119.9 x 82.8 x 0.3 cm Photography - 47.2 x 32.6 x 0.1 inch
$1,500
Delirio Exótico #9
Paloma Castello
Photography - 119.9 x 82.8 x 0.3 cm Photography - 47.2 x 32.6 x 0.1 inch
$1,500
Delirio Exótico #2
Paloma Castello
Photography - 82.8 x 119.9 x 0.3 cm Photography - 32.6 x 47.2 x 0.1 inch
$1,500
Série : Pièces de mer de Castoul
Manfred Paul
Photography - 50 x 60 cm Photography - 19.7 x 23.6 inch
$2,036
Objekt #2. Serrasalmus (5)
Zianko Vasili
Painting - 100 x 110 x 0.3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 43.3 x 0.1 inch
$3,212
Objekt #2. Serrasalmus (2)
Zianko Vasili
Painting - 100 x 110 x 0.3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 43.3 x 0.1 inch
$3,212
Tiger’s skin
Vakhtang Khelashvili
Painting - 80 x 120 x 2.2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 47.2 x 0.9 inch
$5,654
Sailing around Greenland
Ivana Olbricht
Painting - 99.1 x 99.1 x 2 cm Painting - 39 x 39 x 0.8 inch
$2,910
Otherworldly IV
Ansgar Dressler
Painting - 121.9 x 101.6 x 3 cm Painting - 48 x 40 x 1.2 inch
$2,100
Une histoire en bleu
Christiane Guerry
Painting - 50 x 70 x 3 cm Painting - 19.7 x 27.6 x 1.2 inch
$2,827
Sweet shades of memory XXVI
Naoko Paluszak
Painting - 91.4 x 91.4 x 3.8 cm Painting - 36 x 36 x 1.5 inch
$3,000
Superluminal #44
Corinne Natel
Painting - 121.9 x 90.9 x 3.8 cm Painting - 48 x 35.8 x 1.5 inch
$2,672
Vintage 2 CV
Franck Savoye (Francky)
Painting - 80 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
$1,018
Le QG de carton.
Foucaud Stéphane
Painting - 101.5 x 87 x 4 cm Painting - 40 x 34.3 x 1.6 inch
$1,790
Squat de pêche à Ducos.
Foucaud Stéphane
Painting - 105 x 92 x 4 cm Painting - 41.3 x 36.2 x 1.6 inch
$1,979
Fibonacci Fragment IV
Desa Vlahutin
Sculpture - 54 x 75 x 10 cm Sculpture - 21.3 x 29.5 x 3.9 inch
$8,020
Fibonacci Fragment VII
Desa Vlahutin
Sculpture - 31 x 82 x 26 cm Sculpture - 12.2 x 32.3 x 10.2 inch
$9,766
Fibonacci Fragment V
Desa Vlahutin
Sculpture - 78 x 75 x 19 cm Sculpture - 30.7 x 29.5 x 7.5 inch
$9,842
Fibonacci Fragment II
Desa Vlahutin
Sculpture - 101 x 40 x 40 cm Sculpture - 39.8 x 15.7 x 15.7 inch
$9,582
Fibonacci Fragment I
Desa Vlahutin
Sculpture - 78 x 72 x 31 cm Sculpture - 30.7 x 28.3 x 12.2 inch
$9,367
White Top 40, Red Bottom 12
Anna Celie Nastasia Meyer
Sculpture - 63 x 20 x 19 cm Sculpture - 24.8 x 7.9 x 7.5 inch
$5,801
Imaginativ View III
Carita Schmidt
Painting - 120 x 90 x 3 cm Painting - 47.2 x 35.4 x 1.2 inch
$5,801
Imaginativ View II
Carita Schmidt
Painting - 120 x 90 x 3 cm Painting - 47.2 x 35.4 x 1.2 inch
$5,801
Imaginativ View I
Carita Schmidt
Painting - 120 x 90 x 3 cm Painting - 47.2 x 35.4 x 1.2 inch
$5,801
Creation 5, The Tree of life
Liubov Kolbina
Painting - 119 x 119 x 4 cm Painting - 46.9 x 46.9 x 1.6 inch
$11,592
Midnight Mystics
Corinne Lisa Costello
Painting - 121 x 97 x 3 cm Painting - 47.6 x 38.2 x 1.2 inch
$6,688
Mystical Marriage #2
Corinne Lisa Costello
Painting - 121 x 97 x 3 cm Painting - 47.6 x 38.2 x 1.2 inch
$6,688
Mystical Marriage #1
Corinne Lisa Costello
Painting - 121 x 97 x 3 cm Painting - 47.6 x 38.2 x 1.2 inch
$6,688
El encanto de un foxterrier disecado
Iñigo Navarro
Painting - 38 x 46 x 2 cm Painting - 15 x 18.1 x 0.8 inch
$1,696
Et le volcan s'endort
Muriel Paul
Painting - 90 x 90 x 2.5 cm Painting - 35.4 x 35.4 x 1 inch
$1,244
Two Circles
Gudmundur Sigurdsson
Painting - 101.5 x 152 x 4 cm Painting - 40 x 59.8 x 1.6 inch
$11,592
Le marchand de fleurs
Jean-Pierre Lorand
Painting - 33 x 41 x 2 cm Painting - 13 x 16.1 x 0.8 inch
$1,583
Grande Lutte Chinoise 1
François Garros
Painting - 146 x 114 x 5 cm Painting - 57.5 x 44.9 x 2 inch
$5,202
Michelin China - Blue Dragon
Li Lihong
Sculpture - 28.5 x 27 x 24 cm Sculpture - 11.2 x 10.6 x 9.4 inch
$5,089
Michelin China White
Li Lihong
Sculpture - 28.5 x 27 x 24 cm Sculpture - 11.2 x 10.6 x 9.4 inch
$2,827
Une image de la guerre 14-72
Jean-Pierre Le Boul'ch
Painting - 89 x 116 x 2 cm Painting - 35 x 45.7 x 0.8 inch
$7,916
At Home papier déchiré 300 grammes
Bows
Painting - 74 x 57 x 5 cm Painting - 29.1 x 22.4 x 2 inch
$1,696
Dance of light and shadow
Svetlana Martin
Painting - 50 x 40 x 0.7 cm Painting - 19.7 x 15.7 x 0.3 inch
$780
Montre molle
Ray Smith
Fine Art Drawings - 27 x 37 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 10.6 x 14.6 x 0 inch
$1,244
Les lions sont des rois
Patrick Cornée
Painting - 120 x 120 x 3 cm Painting - 47.2 x 47.2 x 1.2 inch
$4,750 $4,275
Stormtrooper, welcome to the dark side
Patrick Cornée
Painting - 80 x 80 x 3 cm Painting - 31.5 x 31.5 x 1.2 inch
$2,827 $2,545
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!