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

Village II

Heart(black and white)-IV

Le Legacy from Historia de Don Quichotte de la Mancha

Paysages 300

Untitled No.106

The Mask of Hands

L'homme est la fleur de la Terre... (Terre d’enfants)

Romantic Garden

Lumière Volée 7

Galaxy Stamp (R2D2)

Timeless Equestrian Elegance Sculpture

Eko

Zone à défendre

Jardin d’hiver

Supreme Lion

Two Landscapes 66

Night coolness

London, lithograpie originale

Desert signe LIX (SG250)

Desert signe LVII (SG248)

Desert Signe XXXV (SG222)

Diàleg

Village Beneath the Aragats

Set of 2 Carved Porcelain Vases. From Unsung Muses Collection

N° 1270 Massada. Le scribe.

Unchartered Waters of Love

Alcyone (Noir sur Blanc)

4 Seasons Winter

Wolverine

Alone with his soul

Moon in the day

Crize

Laundry day

Midnight walker

Flowerball (3D) From the Realm of the Dead

Landscape

Tete Ours

Lawrence d'Arabie

Day in july M 1

Wunderkammern (1)

Slim: Blue energy 1

Turbulence in Kyoto 546

Turbulence in Kyoto 0416

Turbulence in Kyoto 333

Turbulence in Kyoto 4415

Turbulence in Kyoto 4367

Turbulence in Kyoto 4059

Turbulence in Kyoto 3755

Turbulence in Kyoto 3339

Journal d'un graveur 3

Storm (1)

Connection

Volver al origen

Desaferramiento y renuncia

Zèbre

Arañando realidad

Smile

Near the well

Cloud services

White Lotus 10

Le street art c’était mieux avant

Coluche - Iconic portraits

Jean-Marc Barr

Love

Terence Stamp

The guardian