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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
$25,844
Hesiode Et Homere
Orest Hrytsak
Painting - 162 x 130 x 2.5 cm Painting - 63.8 x 51.2 x 1 inch
$22,473
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
$685
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
$685
Michelin China White
Li Lihong
Sculpture - 28.5 x 27 x 24 cm Sculpture - 11.2 x 10.6 x 9.4 inch
$2,809
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
$2,023
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
$2,023
Lucius Ripple II
Léo Caillard
Sculpture - 63 x 44 x 23 cm Sculpture - 24.8 x 17.3 x 9.1 inch
$21,575
Albert Einstein
Virut Panchabuse
Painting - 160 x 140 x 0.3 cm Painting - 63 x 55.1 x 0.1 inch
$13,484
Abstract no. 7021 XL
Anita Kaufmann
Painting - 71.1 x 119.4 x 2 cm Painting - 28 x 47 x 0.8 inch
$844
Torrent62_0798
Yasuo Kiyonaga
Photography - 91 x 116.7 x 5 cm Photography - 35.8 x 45.9 x 2 inch
$2,809
Torrent46_0749-2
Yasuo Kiyonaga
Photography - 60.6 x 121.2 x 5 cm Photography - 23.9 x 47.7 x 2 inch
$2,472
Déesse lune
Isabelle Schenckbecher-Quint
Painting - 100 x 50 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 19.7 x 0.8 inch
$1,348
Let the music play
Ines Khadraoui
Painting - 146 x 114 x 4 cm Painting - 57.5 x 44.9 x 1.6 inch
$4,495
Yuki the young yak (White)
Mark Ryden
Sculpture - 43.2 x 30.5 x 25.4 cm Sculpture - 17 x 12 x 10 inch
$2,023
Gentlemen prefer blondes
Patricia Gadisseur
Painting - 100 x 120 x 2.5 cm Painting - 39.4 x 47.2 x 1 inch
$1,236
Triptychon
Agnes von Rogister
Fine Art Drawings - 70 x 50 x 0.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0.2 inch
$2,259
Endless Solitude
Valeria De Santis
Painting - 180 x 140 x 3 cm Painting - 70.9 x 55.1 x 1.2 inch
$4,686
Midnight love
Valeria De Santis
Painting - 150 x 100 x 3 cm Painting - 59.1 x 39.4 x 1.2 inch
$4,146
Lewis Carroll - Die jagd nach dem snark
Max Ernst
Print - 33 x 25 x 0.1 cm Print - 13 x 9.8 x 0 inch
$3,146
Cinematography inspired session #24
Grzegorz Sikorski
Photography - 60 x 45 x 0.1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 17.7 x 0 inch
$213
Cinematography inspired session #25
Grzegorz Sikorski
Photography - 60 x 45 x 0.1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 17.7 x 0 inch
$213
Cinematography inspired session #26
Grzegorz Sikorski
Photography - 60 x 45 x 0.1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 17.7 x 0 inch
$213
Matador III
Grzegorz Sikorski
Photography - 60 x 45 x 0.1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 17.7 x 0 inch
$213
El Color Grana IV
Grzegorz Sikorski
Photography - 35 x 60 x 0.1 cm Photography - 13.8 x 23.6 x 0 inch
$213
Equilibre
Nell et Domingo Politi
Sculpture - 200 x 70 x 1 cm Sculpture - 78.7 x 27.6 x 0.4 inch
$5,169
Marilyn Monroe Love Story
Patricia Gadisseur
Painting - 100 x 100 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 0.8 inch
$1,292
Eroded Astronaut
Daniel Arsham
Sculpture - 30.5 x 21.6 x 21.6 cm Sculpture - 12 x 8.5 x 8.5 inch
$5,506
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!