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

The Little Shepherd

Elephant

French School White Horse - Impressionist NSWE

Franklin fox terrier

Animalism 6

Animalism 4

Animalism 3

Yakuza Panda

Ice cream Unicorn

Polo Party - Limited Edition Estate Stamped Print

Pink turtle

Brockhaus 6, 1906

Mixed hearts turtle pink

Petite ourse 2

Untitled

Three Graces

Young Poet

King Pop Blue

King Pop Pink

Pelicans. Seascape original painting

Flamingos in the saltpans of Aveiro. Seascape original painting

Neuf fois Henry…

White swans

White swans

La pêche miraculeuse

Dance of light and shadow

Etude de zèbres

Etude de Tigre blanc

Etude de Lion endormi

Snowy Owl No. 3 (S)

Texas Longhorn (S)

High Park Bull (M)

High Park Bull (S)

Dappled Texas Longhorn (L)

Zebu Cow No. 1 (M)

Llama No. 2 (S)

Spirit

Courir

L'Eléphant Raku

The smell of rain-2

Heron No. 9

Heron No. 6

Birds in Flight No. 2

Cheminer vers la magie de la vie

After surf

Confidences en bleu

Bear

James (white rabbit)

Happy day

Hummingbird

Cat

In golden water

A Tiger Prowls

La Famille des Manchots

Les flamands ‘pas roses’ de Hainan

Old School Mouse

Mékalicorne

More than a thousand words

Liberty

Trio ours Keith Haring co n° 2

Swans 2

The Eldritch Hart

Pawned freedom

Puma

Pigeon monument

Bush Babies Gone To Town