White
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Verlaine
Ernest Pignon-Ernest
Fine Art Drawings - 39 x 29 x 0.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 15.4 x 11.4 x 0.2 inch
$18,106
When the desert blooms, Painting, Acrylic on canvas
Andrada Anghel
Painting - 106.7 x 106.7 x 3.6 cm Painting - 42 x 42 x 1.4 inch
$2,533
The beautiful midsummer night's dream
Peter Hofmann
Fine Art Drawings - 53 x 70.5 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 20.9 x 27.8 x 0 inch
$2,546
Gente en la niebla
Débora Sánchez Viqueira
Painting - 137 x 274 x 3 cm Painting - 53.9 x 107.9 x 1.2 inch
$14,152
Anonimo Pank
Dimitris Pavlopoulos
Painting - 115 x 100 x 2.5 cm Painting - 45.3 x 39.4 x 1 inch
$2,263
Mountains
Miquel Angel Benejam
Painting - 195 x 130 x 2.8 cm Painting - 76.8 x 51.2 x 1.1 inch
$3,282
Mountain
Miquel Angel Benejam
Painting - 130 x 162 x 2.8 cm Painting - 51.2 x 63.8 x 1.1 inch
$2,716
Net for dreaming clouds
Lena Ochkalova
Painting - 110 x 76 x 0.1 cm Painting - 43.3 x 29.9 x 0 inch
$2,433
Hell's Mickey & Minnie
Ad Van Hassel
Sculpture - 33 x 10 x 10 cm Sculpture - 13 x 3.9 x 3.9 inch
$255
Magnolia - Venus
Poonam Choudhary
Painting - 50.8 x 81.3 x 5.1 cm Painting - 20 x 32 x 2 inch
$400 $320
White & Metal II
Attila Mata
Sculpture - 103 x 52 x 60 cm Sculpture - 40.6 x 20.5 x 23.6 inch
$13,410
Restaurant Paris
Marco Santaniello
Painting - 61.3 x 90 x 3 cm Painting - 24.1 x 35.4 x 1.2 inch
$5,092
Pont de pierre dans la brume
Aurélie Trabaud
Painting - 25 x 25 x 1 cm Painting - 9.8 x 9.8 x 0.4 inch
$662
Absence with Earth and Green
Paul Lorenz
Painting - 46 x 46 x 0.1 cm Painting - 18.1 x 18.1 x 0 inch
$2,603
Absence with Black and Valley
Paul Lorenz
Painting - 46 x 46 x 0.1 cm Painting - 18.1 x 18.1 x 0 inch
$2,603
Absence with black and Ochre
Paul Lorenz
Painting - 46 x 46 x 0.1 cm Painting - 18.1 x 18.1 x 0 inch
$2,603
Absence with Black and Horizon
Paul Lorenz
Painting - 46 x 46 x 0.1 cm Painting - 18.1 x 18.1 x 0 inch
$2,603
Absence with Black and Fortress
Paul Lorenz
Painting - 46 x 46 x 0.1 cm Painting - 18.1 x 18.1 x 0 inch
$2,603
Mémoire dans l'eau 10T-IX
Akané Kirimura
Painting - 80 x 60 x 1 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0.4 inch
$4,753
Yuxtaposición (Juxtaposition)
Juan Jose Hoyos Quiles
Painting - 76.2 x 101.6 x 3.8 cm Painting - 30 x 40 x 1.5 inch
$2,160
Points of view III
Jessica M. Chaix
Painting - 121.9 x 152.4 x 3.8 cm Painting - 48 x 60 x 1.5 inch
$4,600
336 Bridge over Arno river
Anne B Schwartz
Painting - 91.4 x 91.4 x 91.4 cm Painting - 36 x 36 x 36 inch
$4,275
181 Before harvest
Anne B Schwartz
Painting - 43.2 x 43.2 x 3.8 cm Painting - 17 x 17 x 1.5 inch
$2,200
Alpilles
Agnès Tiollier
Fine Art Drawings - 50 x 70 x 0.18 cm Fine Art Drawings - 19.7 x 27.6 x 0.1 inch
$905
392 spring in Capri
Anne B Schwartz
Painting - 50.8 x 50.8 x 3.8 cm Painting - 20 x 20 x 1.5 inch
$2,650
Reconnecting with your inner self
Selene Art
Painting - 49.8 x 174.8 x 3.6 cm Painting - 19.6 x 68.8 x 1.4 inch
$2,183
Strange dances 2.
Iryna Kastsova
Painting - 100 x 76 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 29.9 x 0.8 inch
$1,788
Spinning Antlers
Moises Morgenstern
Sculpture - 160 x 86.4 x 50.8 cm Sculpture - 63 x 34 x 20 inch
$23,000
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!