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Sonate crépusculaire
Bernard Gaulbert
Painting - 80 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
$2,046
Steady as she goes
Newel Hunter
Painting - 111.8 x 88.9 x 0.5 cm Painting - 44 x 35 x 0.2 inch
$5,950
The Field of Eisenstein III
Ihar Barkhatkou
Painting - 150 x 200 x 3 cm Painting - 59.1 x 78.7 x 1.2 inch
$6,821
Expansion no. 25
César Baldaccini
Sculpture - 187.5 x 110 x 20 cm Sculpture - 73.8 x 43.3 x 7.9 inch
$51,155
Grand éclat noir et blanc
Jonathan Pradillon
Painting - 80 x 80 x 3.5 cm Painting - 31.5 x 31.5 x 1.4 inch
$398
The Time Is Sometimes Now 1.
Petr Strnad
Painting - 43 x 34.5 x 0.1 cm Painting - 16.9 x 13.6 x 0 inch
$398
Dynamique de l'équilibre
Florence Boré
Painting - 107 x 74 x 0.5 cm Painting - 42.1 x 29.1 x 0.2 inch
$4,092
Peau de mur 26
Pascale Morelot-Palu
Painting - 100 x 73 x 3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 28.7 x 1.2 inch
$2,342
Peau de Mur 23
Pascale Morelot-Palu
Painting - 116 x 89 x 3 cm Painting - 45.7 x 35 x 1.2 inch
$3,365
Peau de Mur 22
Pascale Morelot-Palu
Painting - 130 x 97 x 3 cm Painting - 51.2 x 38.2 x 1.2 inch
$3,706
Peau de Mur 21
Pascale Morelot-Palu
Painting - 130 x 97 x 3 cm Painting - 51.2 x 38.2 x 1.2 inch
$3,706
En équilibre
Marie-Odile Wagner
Painting - 100 x 100 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 0.8 inch
$1,819
Untitled. From the Cartographies series
Ana Seggiaro
Painting - 94 x 132.8 x 0.3 cm Painting - 37 x 52.3 x 0.1 inch
$3,800
The Hollowed Nexus I
Palak Modi
Painting - 91.44 x 91.44 x 3 cm Painting - 36 x 36 x 1.2 inch
$2,785
Le bien et le mal (2)
Chantal Westby
Painting - 122 x 91 x 5 cm Painting - 48 x 35.8 x 2 inch
$2,728
The golden butterfly
Alla Grande
Sculpture - 100 x 100 x 5 cm Sculpture - 39.4 x 39.4 x 2 inch
$3,183
The pearl butterfly
Alla Grande
Sculpture - 100 x 100 x 5 cm Sculpture - 39.4 x 39.4 x 2 inch
$3,183
Sans titre #5
Goulwen (Leyto) Mahé
Painting - 90 x 70 x 2 cm Painting - 35.4 x 27.6 x 0.8 inch
$1,705
Topographie végétale (1)
Sophie Zénon
Sculpture - 50 x 15 x 15 cm Sculpture - 19.7 x 5.9 x 5.9 inch
$2,501
Arty white candleholder "Pearls" for 1 candle
Irena Tone
Design - 27.5 x 12.5 x 12.8 cm Design - 10.8 x 4.9 x 5 inch
$853
The Self Begins to Flower
Julia Swaby
Painting - 100 x 150 x 3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 59.1 x 1.2 inch
$3,001
Dancing in Hues
Daniela Pasqualini
Painting - 91.4 x 121.9 x 3.8 cm Painting - 36 x 48 x 1.5 inch
$5,100
Seeking Calm - No 3
Maria Mueller Atelier
Design - 10 x 10 x 0.3 cm Design - 3.9 x 3.9 x 0.1 inch
$1,287
Seeking Calm - No 22
Maria Mueller Atelier
Design - 10 x 10 x 0.3 cm Design - 3.9 x 3.9 x 0.1 inch
$1,287
Composition No. 447
Sumit Mehndiratta
Fine Art Drawings - 41 x 183 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 16.1 x 72 x 0 inch
$1,137
The Hollowed Nexus II
Palak Modi
Painting - 91.44 x 91.44 x 3 cm Painting - 36 x 36 x 1.2 inch
$2,785
Descubrir Arena 0.2
Esther Argelich
Painting - 100 x 70 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 27.6 x 0.8 inch
$2,330
Un Vuelo Color Blanco
Adriana Velarca
Painting - 50 x 50 x 3 cm Painting - 19.7 x 19.7 x 1.2 inch
$4,831
Hope in the Shadow of Death
Selma Tunca
Painting - 100 x 100 x 3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1.2 inch
$4,831
Composition No.322
Sumit Mehndiratta
Painting - 30.5 x 91.4 x 0.1 cm Painting - 12 x 36 x 0 inch
$1,023
Barrigonas
Reyner
Fine Art Drawings - 29 x 19 x 0.03 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.4 x 7.5 x 0 inch
$2,785
The Unknowability of The Other
Julia Swaby
Painting - 100 x 162 x 4 cm Painting - 39.4 x 63.8 x 1.6 inch
$6,417
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
$1,591
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!