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!

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White

Majestic Alps landscape

Snowy mountains

Greek god Apollo

The goddess of the hunt - Handmade sculpture for home decor

Ludwig van Beethoven

Homer's fashion week - Large format

Plan de métro Lapin Alice

Inhale

Sortilèges n°4

Colours of David

Colours of Artemis

Golden streak Artemis

Hercules Last Supper

The dark side of Athena - Handmade sculpture for home decor

Van Gogh

The Veiled Vestal Virgin Handmade Sculpture for Home Decor

Pathos 2

Sans titre

Sans titre

White and purple lilacs bouquet

Despair - 21st Century, Contemporary, Figurative, Floral, Men Love, Dotted Green

Polaris 2

Rules of Fight Club - Handmade sculpture for home decor

Trio ours Keith Haring co n° 2

Fvck you

Please don't kill my vibe

Retro Jaws Nike Sneakers

Peace Out Astronaut

Sneaker Slam Jordan & Basketball pop art sculpture

Banana grab

Message caché - ligne9

Arbre sous la neige

Un dimanche à Paris

Jane Birkin knack

The abbey

Le danseurs 4

Ambiance de plage

True

Courir

Mnemonic codes 001

296 Pompeii lV

297 Pompeii V

181 Before harvest

Ocean drops

Hiver

Confidences en bleu

Pulcinella mangia spaghetti

Elles

Otherworldly IV

Fragile framework II

Black

Memoir

Game hope

La vitrine

Carpe diem

Le repli

Pop race

Spirale de Fibonacci 9

Le roi dec

L’instagrameuse

Infinite

Cat

Potion de schtroumpfs

Monsieur Pipi

Pingouin de carnaval

The girl and the cat