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

Un monde meilleur

Monopoly Happy doodle

Le coeur de Mr.Hope

Tripe

Soupe à la Van Gogh

Batman luxe

Bipbip luxe

Wait

Tic tac

Tête de Ventasuso

Venus

Human

Taos III

Iguazu

Artiste

Mujer

Mythologie sexuelle

Terre érotique

Mythologie sexuelle

No31 Spirit Series

Schwurhand: Frau rennt weg mit Gehirn

Modern Abstract Collage Halftone Statue Meets Earthy Vibes

Possibility

La semeuse de marguerites

Récitation à l’éloge d’une Reine

Ligne nu N°1

Aquarelle graphique 7

Nuée de neige

Paleurs

Seduction

Exploration

A nude

A nude

A nude

To Apollo

Mémoire de JingDeZhen

Les Alpilles / The Alpilles

Composition pour les JO

Summit's Majesty

Untitled

Manufactura 21

Paysage Naturel 5

Paysage Naturel 7

Paysage Naturel 13

À la Croisée

Procession

Krilin

Glaces et feux 4164

Via Veneto #9

Via Veneto #8

Via Veneto #6

Via Veneto #5

Via Veneto #4

Dessin actualité

Loneliness

Chouette Blanche

Apolo White. Head Sculpture. From the series Apollo

Fragmented Pathway

Blonde and cat

Summer read

Affinity

Multi Portrait

Street Life - In the City

Staring Into The Void

Distance Means Nothing to Entangled Hearts

Guia UPS Stamp and USPS Tracking, Diptych. From the series Terms and Conditions