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

Daily dream

Petali di luce

Bouquet of White flowers in a blue vase on red. Still life

Blinding Lights

Best Friends

Galassie profonde

Hochwasser

Coastal ripples

Melodie Monocromatiche - Bianco puro

Composition No. 323

Composition No.252

Black And White Abstract No. 4

The Golden Lotus Lake

The Cove

Abstract R 2424

Tent

Blur roofs 21

Thales pattern

Majestic Lion Sculpture

Illuminated Blue & Grey Sculpture with Lampshade

Farandole

Dark blue

Cachet faisant foi

Light as water

Struttura

Marine abstraite 2024-48

Divided Hercule

Série brut

Do or Undo

Space Solution IX.

Couleur abricot

35cm CH Tribute, Full Black Teddy

You are so cool

You are what you have

Forest Whitaker

Inox

Lithosphere 200

She always remembers him

Lithosphere 207

Untitled 6

Your Soul

Supernova - LC61

Personajes en fondo blanco

Andhana

Ballerina

Paysages 144

Love You

Pointilism 3

Abstraction 156

Abstraction 155

Abstraction 151

Abstraction 150

Abstraction 145

Here's your tea, darling!

Enfant au Turban

Henry V, from Much Ado about Shakespeare

Spatio-temporel

Avalanche

In search of silence

Untitled

Les livres blancs

Abstract 2341

Abstract S2301

Abstract 2325

Abstract 2307

Abstract 2306