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Taj Mahal. India
Dominique Leroy
Photography - 60 x 90 x 2 cm Photography - 23.6 x 35.4 x 0.8 inch
$1,221
Línea Bloques
Rodrigo Spinel
Fine Art Drawings - 19 x 19 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 7.5 x 7.5 x 0.1 inch
$400
Ballerina meccanica
Alexander Daniloff
Painting - 35 x 12 x 0.3 cm Painting - 13.8 x 4.7 x 0.1 inch
$188
Línea Aparejo (Framed)
Rodrigo Spinel
Fine Art Drawings - 19 x 19 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 7.5 x 7.5 x 0.1 inch
$400
Armor
Rossella Mercedes
Fine Art Drawings - 21 x 29.7 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 8.3 x 11.7 x 0 inch
$189
Dance of light and shadow
Svetlana Martin
Painting - 50 x 40 x 0.7 cm Painting - 19.7 x 15.7 x 0.3 inch
$766
Bird and flower
Juffrouw Springtouw
Painting - 40 x 50 x 2 cm Painting - 15.7 x 19.7 x 0.8 inch
$1,054
The space between II
Claire Smith
Painting - 80 x 80 x 4 cm Painting - 31.5 x 31.5 x 1.6 inch
$2,059
Enjoy the view anywhere
Juffrouw Springtouw
Painting - 80 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
$1,387
Les ancêtres I
Soly Cissé
Fine Art Drawings - 30 x 42 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.8 x 16.5 x 0.4 inch
$1,665
Lapin ou ne pas être
Michèle Corotti
Painting - 100 x 50 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 19.7 x 0.8 inch
$888
Composition Abstraite Ref AB0248
Jean-Marie Ledannois
Painting - 51 x 40 cm Painting - 20.1 x 15.7 inch
$555
Glaciers Melting
Adriano Bernetti da Vila
Painting - 80 x 80 x 4.5 cm Painting - 31.5 x 31.5 x 1.8 inch
$5,328
Long day's journey into tomorrow
Elena Raceala
Photography - 91.4 x 61 cm Photography - 36 x 24 inch
$1,332
Spinning Antlers
Moises Morgenstern
Sculpture - 160 x 86.4 x 50.8 cm Sculpture - 63 x 34 x 20 inch
$23,000
Cette fois ci on part quand même
Véronique Clanet
Painting - 92 x 73 cm Painting - 36.2 x 28.7 inch
$6,882
Offering. Supplication
Kerry Campbell
Painting - 121.9 x 91.4 x 7.6 cm Painting - 48 x 36 x 3 inch
$2,200
Eavesdropping. Hello.
Kerry Campbell
Painting - 121.9 x 91.4 x 7.6 cm Painting - 48 x 36 x 3 inch
$2,200
Street in Paris 1
Shengqi Tang
Photography - 30 x 20 x 1 cm Photography - 11.8 x 7.9 x 0.4 inch
$721
Há lados VI (2)
Gersony Silva
Fine Art Drawings - 45.5 x 30.5 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 17.9 x 12 x 0.4 inch
$1,554
Há lados VI (1)
Gersony Silva
Fine Art Drawings - 45.5 x 30.5 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 17.9 x 12 x 0.4 inch
$1,554
Há lados IV (1)
Gersony Silva
Fine Art Drawings - 21 x 50.5 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 8.3 x 19.9 x 0.4 inch
$1,554
Há lados II (2)
Gersony Silva
Fine Art Drawings - 15 x 28 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 5.9 x 11 x 0.4 inch
$1,332
Há lados II (1)
Gersony Silva
Fine Art Drawings - 15 x 28 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 5.9 x 11 x 0.4 inch
$1,332
Há lados I (2)
Gersony Silva
Fine Art Drawings - 30 x 15 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.8 x 5.9 x 0.4 inch
$1,443
Versión libre “La Paloma” de Picasso
O'Farrell
Painting - 130 x 180 x 2 cm Painting - 51.2 x 70.9 x 0.8 inch
$1,221
Two visitors (Bowie series)
Carrie Graber
Painting - 49.3 x 71.1 x 3.8 cm Painting - 19.4 x 28 x 1.5 inch
$4,975
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!