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Expressionist selfie (1)
Adrien Conrad
Painting - 41 x 33 x 2 cm Painting - 16.1 x 13 x 0.8 inch
$792
Expressionist selfie III
Adrien Conrad
Painting - 70 x 50 x 2 cm Painting - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0.8 inch
$1,980
Don't forget to look back
Juffrouw Springtouw
Painting - 41 x 31 cm Painting - 16.1 x 12.2 inch
$792
Serie Papelitos Monochrome
Sara Stewart Brown
Painting - 94 x 152 x 1 cm Painting - 37 x 59.8 x 0.4 inch
$9,415
Chaussure / Sans Titre
Meteo Meteo
Fine Art Drawings - 29.7 x 21 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.7 x 8.3 x 0 inch
$74
Bottiglia e matite
Massimiliano Carisdeo
Painting - 60 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 23.6 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
$679
Winter landscape
Dagmara Skubisz
Painting - 60 x 50 x 1.7 cm Painting - 23.6 x 19.7 x 0.7 inch
$2,546
Les deux danseurs marins en voile lumière
Caroline Degroiselle
Painting - 100 x 50 x 4 cm Painting - 39.4 x 19.7 x 1.6 inch
$2,852
Verres et bouteilles
Pascal Marlin
Painting - 38 x 46 x 2 cm Painting - 15 x 18.1 x 0.8 inch
$509 $407
Série : Se faire passer pour Mao
Nathalie Daoust
Photography - 60 x 90 cm Photography - 23.6 x 35.4 inch
$2,829
Man standing in front of house
Ken Heyman
Photography - 27.9 x 35.6 x 1.3 cm Photography - 11 x 14 x 0.5 inch
$4,000
Group Shot - New York, 1964
Ken Heyman
Photography - 29.2 x 35.6 x 1.3 cm Photography - 11.5 x 14 x 0.5 inch
$4,800
Variation 59 : série de cinq tableaux à structure identique, symétrique et réversible, trouvé par hazard #5
Claude Tousignant
Painting - 121.9 x 243.8 x 5.1 cm Painting - 48 x 96 x 2 inch
$226,326
Losanges en blanc et noir
Claude Tousignant
Painting - 106.7 x 213.4 cm Painting - 42 x 84 inch
$181,061
Fous de Bassan dans les vagues
Hélène Legrand
Painting - 92 x 73 x 2 cm Painting - 36.2 x 28.7 x 0.8 inch
$4,527
Signes de désorientations (série)
Patrick Beaulieu
Photography - 27.9 x 35.6 x 0.3 cm Photography - 11 x 14 x 0.1 inch
$1,584
Signes de désorientations (série)
Patrick Beaulieu
Photography - 27.9 x 35.6 x 0.3 cm Photography - 11 x 14 x 0.1 inch
$1,584
Signes de désorientations (série)
Patrick Beaulieu
Photography - 27.9 x 35.6 x 0.3 cm Photography - 11 x 14 x 0.1 inch
$1,584
Soleil et voiles, sur le pont
Hélène Legrand
Painting - 46 x 61 x 2 cm Painting - 18.1 x 24 x 0.8 inch
$2,603
Floor number 9
Jean-Marie Gitard (Mr Strange)
Print - 49 x 49 x 0.1 cm Print - 19.3 x 19.3 x 0 inch
$338
Koomote one: Believing in the freedom of flight
Taira Akiko Hiraguri
Painting - 41 x 41 cm Painting - 16.1 x 16.1 inch
$1,754
3 poires posant pour une nature morte
Sylvie Laliberté
Print - 63.5 x 48.3 x 1.3 cm Print - 25 x 19 x 0.5 inch
$1,245
Pomme pomme pomme poire pomme
Sylvie Laliberté
Print - 63.5 x 48.3 x 1.3 cm Print - 25 x 19 x 0.5 inch
$1,245
Deux chiens là-bas au loin sur le papier
Sylvie Laliberté
Print - 63.5 x 48.3 x 1.3 cm Print - 25 x 19 x 0.5 inch
$1,245
Sans Titre 12 - Ref BDNW9154
Jean-Pierre Stora
Fine Art Drawings - 32 x 25 cm Fine Art Drawings - 12.6 x 9.8 inch
$849
Abstract painting PH877
Radek Smach
Painting - 39.9 x 39.9 x 2 cm Painting - 15.7 x 15.7 x 0.8 inch
$430
L'aviateur - Jeux d'enfants
Nacks
Painting - 50 x 50 x 3.5 cm Painting - 19.7 x 19.7 x 1.4 inch
$792
Ecoute au loin le TAM TAM de mon coeur qui vient vers toi
Lionel Sourisseau
Painting - 36 x 48 x 1 cm Painting - 14.2 x 18.9 x 0.4 inch
$566
Still life with peaches
Aliya Abs
Painting - 100 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
$2,852
Street comfort
Paul J Bucknall
Photography - 61 x 40.6 x 0.3 cm Photography - 24 x 16 x 0.1 inch
$699
Places (2)
Robbie Cornelissen
Fine Art Drawings - 30.5 x 41.9 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 12 x 16.5 x 0.1 inch
$1,912
Places (1)
Robbie Cornelissen
Fine Art Drawings - 22.9 x 30.5 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 9 x 12 x 0.1 inch
$1,912
Places (underworld)
Robbie Cornelissen
Fine Art Drawings - 25.4 x 33 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 10 x 13 x 0.1 inch
$1,912
Musicians in Lummus Park, Miami Beach
Andy Sweet
Photography - 40 x 40 x 0.1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 15.7 x 0 inch
$1,867
Heart(black and white)-IV
Stanislav Bojankov
Painting - 120 x 120 x 2 cm Painting - 47.2 x 47.2 x 0.8 inch
$2,263
Heart(black and white)-II
Stanislav Bojankov
Painting - 120 x 120 x 2 cm Painting - 47.2 x 47.2 x 0.8 inch
$2,263
Serie Las Piadosas
Enriqueta Aguiló
Painting - 110 x 80 x 3 cm Painting - 43.3 x 31.5 x 1.2 inch
$6,530
Blanche et Narcès
Sophie Manaches
Painting - 65 x 50 x 0.3 cm Painting - 25.6 x 19.7 x 0.1 inch
$849
Hermes & Skull Design
Dervis Akdemir
Sculpture - 30 x 20 x 18 cm Sculpture - 11.8 x 7.9 x 7.1 inch
$399
David on the Ice Cream
Dervis Akdemir
Sculpture - 52 x 15 x 15 cm Sculpture - 20.5 x 5.9 x 5.9 inch
$466
Dos au mur - série Street Art
Henri Mahé dit HIM
Painting - 100 x 81 x 3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.9 x 1.2 inch
$3,253
81 Futura white lips on black
Alla Grande
Sculpture - 53 x 53 x 5 cm Sculpture - 20.9 x 20.9 x 2 inch
$2,150
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!