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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
Light Falling 8
Mercedes Lagunas
Painting - 90 x 90 x 2 cm Painting - 35.4 x 35.4 x 0.8 inch
$1,150 $978
Exotic Emperor Tulip II (XXL)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 177.8 x 177.8 cm Photography - 70 x 70 inch
$50,000
Exotic Emperor Tulip II (XL)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 152.4 x 152.4 cm Photography - 60 x 60 inch
$20,000
Two Glasses of Champagne (XXL)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 177.8 x 177.8 cm Photography - 70 x 70 inch
$50,000
Two Glasses of Champagne (L)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 152.4 x 152.4 cm Photography - 60 x 60 inch
$20,000
Fuck Mickey (Ninu&Vincent Bardou)
Ninu
Sculpture - 26 x 30 x 16 cm Sculpture - 10.2 x 11.8 x 6.3 inch
$4,092
8th Position Silhouette
Tyler Shields
Photography - 177.8 x 177.8 cm Photography - 70 x 70 inch
$50,000
8th Position Silhouette
Tyler Shields
Photography - 152.4 x 152.4 cm Photography - 60 x 60 inch
$20,000
8th Position Silhouette
Tyler Shields
Photography - 114.3 x 114.3 cm Photography - 45 x 45 inch
$10,000
Papaver 2
Béa Bealaff-Girotto
Fine Art Drawings - 20 x 20 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 7.9 x 7.9 x 0.4 inch
$682
On Top Of The World II (4)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 213.4 x 160 cm Photography - 84 x 63 inch
$50,000
On Top Of The World II (3)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 182.9 x 142.2 cm Photography - 72 x 56 inch
$25,000
On Top Of The World II (2)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 152.4 x 114.3 cm Photography - 60 x 45 inch
$15,000
On Top Of The World II (1)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 101.6 x 76.2 cm Photography - 40 x 30 inch
$10,000
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
Mini collector Draw me a bear
Stéphane Gautier
Print - 25 x 25 x 1 cm Print - 9.8 x 9.8 x 0.4 inch
$682
At the end of the tunnel
Baptiste Laurent
Painting - 50 x 50 x 0.3 cm Painting - 19.7 x 19.7 x 0.1 inch
$682
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
Concert nocturn a Bujaraloz
Ferran Cartes Yerro
Sculpture - 35 x 35 x 6 cm Sculpture - 13.8 x 13.8 x 2.4 inch
$625
Composition No.322
Sumit Mehndiratta
Painting - 30.5 x 91.4 x 0.1 cm Painting - 12 x 36 x 0 inch
$1,023
A silver and a black angel were flying together
Rafael Sliks
Painting - 120 x 120 x 3 cm Painting - 47.2 x 47.2 x 1.2 inch
$14,551
Le vieux pot de peinture jaune - 363
Yannick Bouillault
Sculpture - 23 x 16 x 15 cm Sculpture - 9.1 x 6.3 x 5.9 inch
$512
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
Duality
Alexandre de Poplavsky
Painting - 150 x 100 x 3.5 cm Painting - 59.1 x 39.4 x 1.4 inch
$31,830
Mademoiselle Sayana
Angelika Zorigt
Painting - 50 x 39.5 x 2 cm Painting - 19.7 x 15.6 x 0.8 inch
$1,478
Untitled. From the Cartographies series
Ana Seggiaro
Painting - 87.9 x 129.8 x 0.3 cm Painting - 34.6 x 51.1 x 0.1 inch
$3,800
Flowers by the sea
Evgeny Chernyakovsky
Painting - 90 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 35.4 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
$2,200
Flamingo pond
Evgeny Chernyakovsky
Painting - 75 x 100 x 2 cm Painting - 29.5 x 39.4 x 0.8 inch
$2,300
Aigrette en Camargue derrière des barbelés
Lionel le Jeune
Painting - 37 x 55 x 2 cm Painting - 14.6 x 21.7 x 0.8 inch
$1,478
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!