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Variations cinétiques 1
Piero Cipolat
Painting - 50 x 50 x 4 cm Painting - 19.7 x 19.7 x 1.6 inch
£1,045
30cm Heart CH Tribute Black
Naor
Sculpture - 30 x 15 x 10 cm Sculpture - 11.8 x 5.9 x 3.9 inch
£1,188
Crazy little Thing called Love
Katharina Hormel
Painting - 80 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
£536
USA. Nevada and California. The Misfits, a film by John HUSTON. 1960 VI
Eve Arnold
Photography - 40.6 x 30.5 x 5.1 cm Photography - 16 x 12 x 2 inch
£1,949
USA. Nevada. Reno. Marilyn Monroe on the set of The Misfits by John HUSTON
Eve Arnold
Photography - 40.6 x 30.5 x 5.1 cm Photography - 16 x 12 x 2 inch
£1,949
USA. Nevada. US actress Marilyn Monroe on the set of The Misfits by John HUSTON.
Eve Arnold
Photography - 40.6 x 30.5 x 5.1 cm Photography - 16 x 12 x 2 inch
£1,949
UAE. Dubai. Behind the Veil.
Eve Arnold
Photography - 40.6 x 30.5 x 5.1 cm Photography - 16 x 12 x 2 inch
£1,949
Marilyn MONROE on the set of The Misfits - USA, Nevada, Reno
Eve Arnold
Photography - 40.6 x 30.5 x 5.1 cm Photography - 16 x 12 x 2 inch
£1,949
Gwen Stefani - Anaheim Pond, Anaheim, CA
Michael Grecco
Photography - 50.8 x 40.6 x 5.1 cm Photography - 20 x 16 x 2 inch
£2,488
Michael Jackson - LA Sports Arena, Los Angeles, CA
Michael Grecco
Photography - 50.8 x 40.6 x 5.1 cm Photography - 20 x 16 x 2 inch
£2,488
David Byrne of the Talking Heads
Michael Grecco
Photography - 50.8 x 40.6 x 5.1 cm Photography - 20 x 16 x 2 inch
£2,488
Will Ferrell (II) - Los Angeles, CA 2007
Michael Grecco
Photography - 50.8 x 40.6 x 5.1 cm Photography - 20 x 16 x 2 inch
£2,488
The baby Panda loves Pop Art
Patrick Cornée
Painting - 50 x 50 x 3 cm Painting - 19.7 x 19.7 x 1.2 inch
£1,697
Surrounded by Friends
Gaëtan de Séguin
Painting - 90 x 130 x 3 cm Painting - 35.4 x 51.2 x 1.2 inch
£2,769
The Magnolia’s Breeze Of Maisel Synagogue
Kirill Postovit
Fine Art Drawings - 29.7 x 21 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.7 x 8.3 x 0 inch
£188
Bledard! Je suis nouveau à l'ecole
Enfant Précoce / Francis Essoua Kalu
Painting - 130 x 89 x 2 cm Painting - 51.2 x 35 x 0.8 inch
£8,039
13 novembre - Libération
Karine Azoulay (1kazou)
Painting - 90 x 90 x 2 cm Painting - 35.4 x 35.4 x 0.8 inch
£1,340
What did we do
Guillaume Nicolaou
Painting - 120 x 60 x 4 cm Painting - 47.2 x 23.6 x 1.6 inch
£1,340
China. Peking. Cotton mill nursery
Eve Arnold
Photography - 30.5 x 40.6 x 5.1 cm Photography - 12 x 16 x 2 inch
£1,949
Orpheus and Eurydice (S)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 50.8 x 76.2 cm Photography - 20 x 30 inch
£4,147
Village in Snow - 7651203
Simeon Posen
Photography - 50.8 x 61 x 5.1 cm Photography - 20 x 24 x 2 inch
£2,778
Andres Alsina in Paris
Manuel Santelices
Fine Art Drawings - 27.9 x 27.9 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11 x 11 x 0.1 inch
£788
Untitled soft in white
Ronald Hunter
Painting - 80 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
£1,071
Contemporary portrait Entomological Collection
Nataliya Bagatskaya
Painting - 80 x 60 x 1.5 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0.6 inch
£1,161
As Far As You Can See
Eniafe Gbenga
Painting - 55.9 x 50.8 x 2.5 cm Painting - 22 x 20 x 1 inch
£1,120
Untitled 4
David Paul Kay
Fine Art Drawings - 16 x 16 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 6.3 x 6.3 x 0 inch
£536
Untitled 3
David Paul Kay
Fine Art Drawings - 16 x 16 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 6.3 x 6.3 x 0 inch
£536
Untitled 2
David Paul Kay
Fine Art Drawings - 16 x 16 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 6.3 x 6.3 x 0 inch
£536
Monochrome Elegance - black white art
Anastassia Skopp
Painting - 90 x 90 x 2 cm Painting - 35.4 x 35.4 x 0.8 inch
£884
Minimal Forms 02
Poonam Choudhary
Painting - 91.4 x 91.4 x 3.8 cm Painting - 36 x 36 x 1.5 inch
£539
A glimpse into rural tranquility
Narek Qochunc
Painting - 24 x 30 x 2 cm Painting - 9.4 x 11.8 x 0.8 inch
£165
Orpheus and Eurydice (XXL)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 160 x 213.4 cm Photography - 63 x 84 inch
£41,467
Orpheus and Eurydice (L)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 101.6 x 152.4 cm Photography - 40 x 60 inch
£12,440
Dancer In The Dark (XXL)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 160 x 213.4 cm Photography - 63 x 84 inch
£41,467
Dancer In The Dark (L)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 101.6 x 152.4 cm Photography - 40 x 60 inch
£12,440
A view of the Park
Manuel Santelices
Fine Art Drawings - 35.6 x 27.9 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 14 x 11 x 0.1 inch
£912
Before the storm
Serhii Cherniakovskyi
Painting - 80 x 90 x 2.5 cm Painting - 31.5 x 35.4 x 1 inch
£1,244
Minnie white Splash
Xavier Wttrwulghe
Sculpture - 30 x 17 x 25 cm Sculpture - 11.8 x 6.7 x 9.8 inch
£1,206
Kara et ses oreilles
Fatoumata Diabaté
Photography - 100 x 66 x 2 cm Photography - 39.4 x 26 x 0.8 inch
£2,680
Seems Heavy, There's Help
Kpe Innocent
Painting - 100 x 100 x 5 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 2 inch
£5,359
Le blanc mis en scène
Marie-Odile Wagner
Painting - 50 x 50 x 2 cm Painting - 19.7 x 19.7 x 0.8 inch
£402
A Pulp Fiction pop art tribute
Patrick Cornée
Painting - 120 x 120 x 3 cm Painting - 47.2 x 47.2 x 1.2 inch
£4,377
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!