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Healing Greenland, Chunja and The Monkey Brothers
Shin Seung-Hun
Fine Art Drawings - 72 x 77.5 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 28.3 x 30.5 x 0 inch
£899
Figure Group
Robert Goodnough
Fine Art Drawings - 29.2 x 39.4 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.5 x 15.5 x 0.1 inch
£1,560
Hommage à Lalanne
Michel Audiard
Sculpture - 88 x 65 x 38 cm Sculpture - 34.6 x 25.6 x 15 inch
£14,378
Present imperfect
Maria Esmar
Painting - 100 x 100 x 4 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1.6 inch
£1,788 £1,609
The earth prelude
Maria Esmar
Painting - 100 x 100 x 4 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1.6 inch
£1,707 £1,537
Carnaval des animaux
Patrick Moya
Painting - 30 x 30 x 3 cm Painting - 11.8 x 11.8 x 1.2 inch
£1,348
Spotty face beauty
Faie Davis
Photography - 40 x 30 x 0.1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 11.8 x 0 inch
£780
Laid Bare - Nude + Gold #4
Sophie Derrick
Print - 59.4 x 42 x 0.2 cm Print - 23.4 x 16.5 x 0.1 inch
£545
L'évêque - série oiseaux
Henry Ausloos
Photography - 80 x 30 x 0.5 cm Photography - 31.5 x 11.8 x 0.2 inch
£1,510
Couple II - série oiseaux
Henry Ausloos
Photography - 75 x 50 x 0.1 cm Photography - 29.5 x 19.7 x 0 inch
£988
Dream gallery (cattelan, Cindy Sherman, galerie perrotin) black
André Saraiva
Print - 100 x 70 cm Print - 39.4 x 27.6 inch
£453
Grand Duc aux chardons - série animal et botanique
Marie-Véronique Samaden
Painting - 60 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 23.6 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
£881
Follow the white rabbit
Katarzyna Widmanska
Photography - 60 x 40 cm Photography - 23.6 x 15.7 inch
£674
Conversation d'oiseaux
Isabelle Schenckbecher-Quint
Painting - 30 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 11.8 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
£629
The picture of emotions and other ailments of a sensitive human VII
Joanna Chudy
Photography - 50 x 60 x 0.1 cm Photography - 19.7 x 23.6 x 0 inch
£674
Renversements 733
Anneke Klein-Kranenbarg
Sculpture - 25 x 25 x 3.5 cm Sculpture - 9.8 x 9.8 x 1.4 inch
£1,078
Renversements 734
Anneke Klein-Kranenbarg
Sculpture - 25 x 25 x 3.5 cm Sculpture - 9.8 x 9.8 x 1.4 inch
£1,078
Entrelazar 6 Wall Sculpture
Javier Rey
Sculpture - 32 x 32 x 8 cm Sculpture - 12.6 x 12.6 x 3.1 inch
£843
Ink album (Flower)
Zakhar Shevchuk
Fine Art Drawings - 28 x 20 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11 x 7.9 x 0 inch
£270
Abstract no. 7021 XL
Anita Kaufmann
Painting - 71.1 x 119.4 x 2 cm Painting - 28 x 47 x 0.8 inch
£712
Hidden light - Green and purple
Daniela Pasqualini
Painting - 91.4 x 91.4 x 2.5 cm Painting - 36 x 36 x 1 inch
£1,687
Le Roi Des Chefs Et Le Chef Des Rois
Orest Hrytsak
Painting - 130 x 162 x 2.5 cm Painting - 51.2 x 63.8 x 1 inch
£20,668
Hesiode Et Homere
Orest Hrytsak
Painting - 162 x 130 x 2.5 cm Painting - 63.8 x 51.2 x 1 inch
£17,972
Pont de pierre dans la brume
Aurélie Trabaud
Painting - 25 x 25 x 1 cm Painting - 9.8 x 9.8 x 0.4 inch
£526
L’ébouriffé ours - série ours polaire
André-Marc Serrano
Painting - 50 x 50 x 4 cm Painting - 19.7 x 19.7 x 1.6 inch
£548
Dans la gueule de l'ours - série ours polaire
André-Marc Serrano
Painting - 50 x 50 x 4 cm Painting - 19.7 x 19.7 x 1.6 inch
£548
Dark Materials II
James Sparshatt
Photography - 67 x 100 x 2 cm Photography - 26.4 x 39.4 x 0.8 inch
£1,750
Michelin China White
Li Lihong
Sculpture - 28.5 x 27 x 24 cm Sculpture - 11.2 x 10.6 x 9.4 inch
£2,246
Retiro in May
Mihaela Ivanova
Photography - 50 x 50 x 0.2 cm Photography - 19.7 x 19.7 x 0.1 inch
£476
Pigeon monument
Mihaela Ivanova
Photography - 50 x 50 x 0.2 cm Photography - 19.7 x 19.7 x 0.1 inch
£494
Invención del eterno feminino
Yamandú Canosa
Fine Art Drawings - 49 x 65 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 19.3 x 25.6 x 0.4 inch
£1,617
S/T II
Yamandú Canosa
Fine Art Drawings - 49 x 65 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 19.3 x 25.6 x 0.4 inch
£1,617
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!