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Eugène Delacroix
Valerio Adami
Fine Art Drawings - 42 x 29.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 16.5 x 11.6 inch
£3,110
Un air d exotisme : Mahe Seychelles
Jean-Pierre Fleury
Photography - 100 x 100 cm Photography - 39.4 x 39.4 inch
£2,186
L'Océan par temps gris
Michel Trapezaroff
Painting - 24 x 35 x 2 cm Painting - 9.4 x 13.8 x 0.8 inch
£4,106
Environs d'Habère-Poche en hiver
Michel Trapezaroff
Painting - 19 x 27 x 0.5 cm Painting - 7.5 x 10.6 x 0.2 inch
£2,613
Dusty Pink
Scott Troxel
Sculpture - 51.4 x 20.3 x 4.4 cm Sculpture - 20.25 x 8 x 1.75 inch
£1,422 £1,209
Bourgeois Big Top
Scott Troxel
Sculpture - 55.9 x 34.3 x 8.3 cm Sculpture - 22 x 13.5 x 3.25 inch
£1,244
Gold field and sky 201227
Don Bishop
Painting - 101.6 x 61 x 3.8 cm Painting - 40 x 24 x 1.5 inch
£1,576
Two lines 3
Gina Vor
Fine Art Drawings - 30 x 40 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.8 x 15.7 x 0.1 inch
£133
Window into Ocean
Lilly Lillà
Painting - 100 x 100 x 3.5 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1.4 inch
£2,711
The Rolling Stones Group Portrait, London, 1965
Glen Craig
Photography - 50.8 x 40.6 x 5.1 cm Photography - 20 x 16 x 2 inch
£1,451
Initial point 4
Alexander Lazarkov
Painting - 200 x 106 x 0.2 cm Painting - 78.7 x 41.7 x 0.1 inch
£1,635
Blossom evolution XXIII
Naoko Paluszak
Painting - 91.4 x 61 x 3.8 cm Painting - 36 x 24 x 1.5 inch
£995
Dreamscape Gold & White - Two tone paintings
Daniela Pasqualini
Painting - 152.4 x 121.9 x 2.5 cm Painting - 60 x 48 x 1 inch
£4,810
Tout Prend Forme (blanc)
Jacques Villeglé
Print - 64 x 55 x 1 cm Print - 25.2 x 21.7 x 0.4 inch
£1,244
Torrent64_0802
Yasuo Kiyonaga
Photography - 41 x 60.6 x 5 cm Photography - 16.1 x 23.9 x 2 inch
£800
Torrent48_0763
Yasuo Kiyonaga
Photography - 72.7 x 60.6 x 5 cm Photography - 28.6 x 23.9 x 2 inch
£1,422
Torrent52_0773
Yasuo Kiyonaga
Photography - 60.6 x 72.7 x 5 cm Photography - 23.9 x 28.6 x 2 inch
£1,422
Torrent51_0770
Yasuo Kiyonaga
Photography - 60.6 x 72.7 x 5 cm Photography - 23.9 x 28.6 x 2 inch
£1,422
Torrent43_0742
Yasuo Kiyonaga
Photography - 72.7 x 60.6 x 5 cm Photography - 28.6 x 23.9 x 2 inch
£1,422
Dirty magic
Michael Alan
Fine Art Drawings - 27.9 x 21.6 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11 x 8.5 x 0.04 inch
£1,422 £1,209
Every day is indigenous peoples day
Michael Alan
Fine Art Drawings - 295.9 x 58.2 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 116.5 x 22.9 x 0.04 inch
£978 £831
Figure_1
Agnes von Rogister
Fine Art Drawings - 65 x 46 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 25.6 x 18.1 x 0.1 inch
£1,377
32 décembre - Face à la mort numérique
Enki Bilal
Print - 18 x 25.5 x 1 cm Print - 7.1 x 10 x 0.4 inch
£284
Flat Layer Multi-Color
Mattia Novello
Painting - 111.8 x 111.8 x 5.1 cm Painting - 44 x 44 x 2 inch
£6,220
Ice Bar - Slim Aarons Limited Edition Estate Stamped Print
Slim Aarons
Photography - 152.4 x 101.6 cm Photography - 60 x 40 inch
£3,093
Bettina Graziani 1964 Slim Aarons Limited Edition Estate Stamped Print
Slim Aarons
Photography - 101.6 x 101.6 cm Photography - 40 x 40 inch
£3,155
La cage où les gens pleurent
Sandra Chevrier
Sculpture - 30 x 22 x 17 cm Sculpture - 11.8 x 8.7 x 6.7 inch
£1,644
Clouds and pareidolia
Isabelle Fournet
Painting - 90 x 270 x 2 cm Painting - 35.4 x 106.3 x 0.8 inch
£3,466
Rigiblick Forest
Isabelle Fournet
Painting - 147 x 195 x 2 cm Painting - 57.9 x 76.8 x 0.8 inch
£2,311
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!