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Composition No.252
Sumit Mehndiratta
Painting - 63 x 41 x 0.1 cm Painting - 24.8 x 16.1 x 0 inch
$568
No regret
Cynthia Coulombe-Bégin
Painting - 121.9 x 121.9 x 3.8 cm Painting - 48 x 48 x 1.5 inch
$3,750
Santorini Magic
Sokratis Evgenidis
Painting - 80 x 80 x 3 cm Painting - 31.5 x 31.5 x 1.2 inch
$6,252
Greeting from : another adventure in human error
Mr Popart
Fine Art Drawings - 6.5 x 15 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 2.6 x 5.9 x 0 inch
$136
Soft abstraction VI
Tamara Bakhshinyan
Painting - 100 x 150 x 3.5 cm Painting - 39.4 x 59.1 x 1.4 inch
$2,956
Aquellos armarios tinosos
Salvador Dali
Print - 23.5 x 17 x 0.2 cm Print - 9.3 x 6.7 x 0.1 inch
$1,307
L'aventurière
Christiane Simon-Roques
Painting - 100 x 73 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 28.7 x 0.8 inch
$1,591
Through the Pale Twilit Meadows
Katharina Husslein
Painting - 120 x 140 x 3 cm Painting - 47.2 x 55.1 x 1.2 inch
$4,206
Composition No.144
Sumit Mehndiratta
Painting - 94 x 152 x 4 cm Painting - 37 x 59.8 x 1.6 inch
$1,648
Detrás de máscaras
Patricia Restrepo
Painting - 60.96 x 50.8 x 3 cm Painting - 24 x 20 x 1.2 inch
$6,082
Reflections of Modernity: Abstract Impressions at Mies van der Rohe Pavilion
Daniel Holfeld
Photography - 20 x 30 cm Photography - 7.9 x 11.8 inch
$682
Manteau de neige
Sophie Zénon
Sculpture - 134 x 69 x 52 cm Sculpture - 52.8 x 27.2 x 20.5 inch
$22,735
Never another word
Mercedes Lagunas
Painting - 150 x 150 x 0.1 cm Painting - 59.1 x 59.1 x 0 inch
$2,890 $2,312
Torrent36_8617
Yasuo Kiyonaga
Photography - 32.9 x 48.3 x 0.1 cm Photography - 13 x 19 x 0 inch
$818
Sans titre
JonOne
Fine Art Drawings - 32 x 41 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 12.6 x 16.1 x 0 inch
$2,274 $2,046
Kermesse
Christiane Simon-Roques
Painting - 65 x 100 x 2 cm Painting - 25.6 x 39.4 x 0.8 inch
$1,478
Planète Mélancolie - livre d’artiste (7)
Julie Ruelle
Print - 28 x 20 x 2.5 cm Print - 11 x 7.9 x 1 inch
$568
Planète Mélancolie - livre d’artiste (6)
Julie Ruelle
Print - 28 x 20 x 2.5 cm Print - 11 x 7.9 x 1 inch
$568
Andalouse White (LC77)
Landry Clément
Sculpture - 67 x 23.5 x 4.6 cm Sculpture - 26.4 x 9.3 x 1.8 inch
$2,228
Chamonix
Paul de Chatelperron
Fine Art Drawings - 21 x 36 cm Fine Art Drawings - 8.3 x 14.2 inch
$409
Heavenly Plants No.7
Sumit Mehndiratta
Painting - 114.3 x 83.8 x 5.1 cm Painting - 45 x 33 x 2 inch
$1,137
Heavenly Plants No.6
Sumit Mehndiratta
Painting - 109.2 x 83.8 x 5.1 cm Painting - 43 x 33 x 2 inch
$1,137
Exploflora Series No.69
Sumit Mehndiratta
Painting - 99.1 x 154.9 x 5.1 cm Painting - 39 x 61 x 2 inch
$1,478
Untitled No.104
Sumit Mehndiratta
Painting - 76 x 76 x 3 cm Painting - 29.9 x 29.9 x 1.2 inch
$1,080
Untitled No.106
Sumit Mehndiratta
Painting - 76 x 76 x 3 cm Painting - 29.9 x 29.9 x 1.2 inch
$1,080
Exploflora Series No.68
Sumit Mehndiratta
Painting - 86 x 86 x 3 cm Painting - 33.9 x 33.9 x 1.2 inch
$989
Midday Metamorphosis
Sumit Mehndiratta
Print - 100 x 100 x 3 cm Print - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1.2 inch
$1,023
Dripology No.14
Sumit Mehndiratta
Painting - 113 x 113 x 2 cm Painting - 44.5 x 44.5 x 0.8 inch
$1,250
Place Within Reach 24
Petr Strnad
Painting - 70.2 x 50 x 0.1 cm Painting - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0 inch
$512
Place Within Reach 23
Petr Strnad
Painting - 70.2 x 50 x 0.1 cm Painting - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0 inch
$512
Accords et suspensions II
Jean-Claude Atzori
Painting - 65 x 92 x 1 cm Painting - 25.6 x 36.2 x 0.4 inch
$1,705
Abstract 22124
Alex Senchenko
Painting - 100 x 100 x 1.5 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 0.6 inch
$1,669
Butterfly Park 10
Sumit Mehndiratta
Painting - 65 x 65 x 4 cm Painting - 25.6 x 25.6 x 1.6 inch
$2,046
Abstract Landscape 24.08.21
Viktoria Ganhao
Painting - 80 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
$1,250
Dalmatian pelican - Pelecanus crispus
Ivaylo Zafirov
Photography - 37 x 50 cm Photography - 14.6 x 19.7 inch
$239
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!