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Girl at the sea 3
Elena Sokolova
Painting - 39.1 x 39.1 x 1 cm Painting - 15.4 x 15.4 x 0.4 inch
€323
My Home : Dual Pandas (2)
Hong Yu
Painting - 190 x 95 x 25 cm Painting - 74.8 x 37.4 x 9.8 inch
€11,514
My home: Dual pandas
Hong Yu
Painting - 251.61 x 251.61 x 19.35 cm Painting - 99.1 x 99.1 x 7.6 inch
€11,514
Watchtower MLT IV
Sven Pfrommer
Photography - 100 x 100 x 2 cm Photography - 39.4 x 39.4 x 0.8 inch
€1,890
Presentation of the bride
Seth Clottey
Painting - 127 x 203.2 x 10.2 cm Painting - 50 x 80 x 4 inch
€8,539
Série: Natura facit saltus - bézoard
Edgar Lissel
Photography - 100 x 90 x 0.1 cm Photography - 39.4 x 35.4 x 0 inch
€8,000
Madagascar, Alaotra-Mangoro, Manganaro, enfants à la paroisse protestante du village
José Nicolas
Photography - 40 x 40 cm Photography - 15.7 x 15.7 inch
€600
David Bowie Aladdin Sane Eyes Closed
Brian Duffy
Photography - 61 x 61 x 0.01 cm Photography - 24 x 24 x 0 inch
€21,500
David Bowie Aladdin Sane Eyes Open
Brian Duffy
Photography - 101 x 101 x 0.01 cm Photography - 39.8 x 39.8 x 0 inch
€10,500
Auspicious fairy crane - 4
Jinxian Zhang
Painting - 69 x 139 x 0.5 cm Painting - 27.2 x 54.7 x 0.2 inch
€3,900
Morning Rise
Drew Doggett
Photography - 45.7 x 68.6 x 0.3 cm Photography - 18 x 27 x 0.1 inch
€1,900
A sunday morning Tic Tac Toe game
Carlos Pun Art
Painting - 70 x 70 x 3 cm Painting - 27.6 x 27.6 x 1.2 inch
€1,535
Pingouin des Antilles
Herve Guibert
Sculpture - 120 x 80 x 80 cm Sculpture - 47.2 x 31.5 x 31.5 inch
€4,000
Melodie Monocromatiche - Vintage White
Daniela Pasqualini
Painting - 22.9 x 22.9 x 2.5 cm Painting - 9 x 9 x 1 inch
€336
Melodie Monocromatiche - Bianco puro
Daniela Pasqualini
Painting - 22.9 x 22.9 x 2.5 cm Painting - 9 x 9 x 1 inch
€336
Grande Mortaio Bronzeo for Martini & Rossi
Piero Fornasetti
Design - 23.5 x 23.5 x 4 cm Design - 9.3 x 9.3 x 1.6 inch
€350
Ode - Round Painting
Daniela Pasqualini
Painting - 30.5 x 30.5 x 2.5 cm Painting - 12 x 12 x 1 inch
€288
Luxury Art Toffee - Luxury Fashion
Michael Daniels
Sculpture - 33 x 10 x 10 cm Sculpture - 13 x 3.9 x 3.9 inch
€225
Following the light II
Kamalky Laureano
Painting - 150 x 100 x 4 cm Painting - 59.1 x 39.4 x 1.6 inch
€6,100 €5,795
My Beautiful Garden
Elena Shichko
Painting - 60 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 23.6 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
€2,400
Job offer
Simon Richard Halimi
Painting - 130 x 162 x 2 cm Painting - 51.2 x 63.8 x 0.8 inch
€42,000
You can do what she would want
Joana Choumali
Photography - 50 x 50 x 2 cm Photography - 19.7 x 19.7 x 0.8 inch
€15,000
Casse-toi pauv’con
Fabrizio Saracino
Sculpture - 37 x 64 x 3.5 cm Sculpture - 14.6 x 25.2 x 1.4 inch
€2,300
Audrey Hepburn Nothing is impossible 2
Gardani Art
Painting - 96.5 x 127 x 3.8 cm Painting - 38 x 50 x 1.5 inch
€5,661
They Know the way
Gardani Art
Painting - 137.2 x 106.7 x 8.9 cm Painting - 54 x 42 x 3.5 inch
€14,392
Le petit chien blanc
Patrick Moya
Painting - 80 x 80 x 4 cm Painting - 31.5 x 31.5 x 1.6 inch
€3,800
La coz y el martillo
Miguel Amate
Painting - 92 x 73 x 2.5 cm Painting - 36.2 x 28.7 x 1 inch
€12,520
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!