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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Orogenèse XXIII (SG238)
Sylvie Guyomard
Sculpture - 50 x 40 x 3 cm Sculpture - 19.7 x 15.7 x 1.2 inch
$1,431
La Bella del porto
Antonino Puliafico
Painting - 98 x 113 x 2 cm Painting - 38.6 x 44.5 x 0.8 inch
$2,980
Brigitte Bardot, La vie est belle
Patrick Cornée
Painting - 80 x 80 x 3 cm Painting - 31.5 x 31.5 x 1.2 inch
$3,815 $3,433
Drinking Water, Beer, Moonshine
Pavlenko Leonid
Painting - 50 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 19.7 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
$775
Marine abstraite 2023-29
Fred Boutet
Painting - 50 x 50 x 2 cm Painting - 19.7 x 19.7 x 0.8 inch
$358
Marine abstraite 2023-25
Fred Boutet
Painting - 50 x 50 x 2 cm Painting - 19.7 x 19.7 x 0.8 inch
$358
35cm CH Tribute, bi color white and gold Teddy
Naor
Sculpture - 35 x 25 x 28 cm Sculpture - 13.8 x 9.8 x 11 inch
$775
Peinture 11-2023-67
Alain Bécanne
Painting - 120 x 120 x 4.5 cm Painting - 47.2 x 47.2 x 1.8 inch
$1,431
Peinture 11-2023-70
Alain Bécanne
Painting - 100 x 150 x 4.5 cm Painting - 39.4 x 59.1 x 1.8 inch
$1,788
Starry sky black and white abstraction dropping Pop Art
Nataliia Krykun
Painting - 40 x 30 x 4 cm Painting - 15.7 x 11.8 x 1.6 inch
$942
Winter white mountain landscape
Nataliia Krykun
Painting - 30 x 30 x 2 cm Painting - 11.8 x 11.8 x 0.8 inch
$715
Composition noir et blanc 6
Albert Ràfols-Casamada
Print - 38.5 x 57 x 0.1 cm Print - 15.2 x 22.4 x 0 inch
$713
Ma femme est une fête, 50
Emmanuel Pons
Painting - 30 x 42 x 2.5 cm Painting - 11.8 x 16.5 x 1 inch
$942
Muted Symphony
Daniela Pasqualini
Painting - 121.9 x 91.4 x 5.1 cm Painting - 48 x 36 x 2 inch
$5,700
Majestic Lion Sculpture
Dervis Akdemir
Sculpture - 50 x 79 x 43 cm Sculpture - 19.7 x 31.1 x 16.9 inch
$720
Illuminated Blue & Grey Sculpture with Lampshade
Dervis Akdemir
Sculpture - 46 x 15 x 13 cm Sculpture - 18.1 x 5.9 x 5.1 inch
$847
Impossible behaviour-11
Galya Popova
Fine Art Drawings - 90 x 60 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 35.4 x 23.6 x 0.1 inch
$1,907
Ourson Teddy Chanel Marbre (1)
Naor
Sculpture - 35 x 26 x 25 cm Sculpture - 13.8 x 10.2 x 9.8 inch
$685
Galassie profonde
Antonino Puliafico
Painting - 160 x 200 x 4 cm Painting - 63 x 78.7 x 1.6 inch
$6,676
Copy of the picture (Roses in a glass vase) (1919) Edward Vuar
Procach Olesia
Painting - 40 x 50 x 2 cm Painting - 15.7 x 19.7 x 0.8 inch
$721
Marine abstraite 69
Fred Boutet
Painting - 120 x 120 x 2.5 cm Painting - 47.2 x 47.2 x 1 inch
$1,431
Marine Abstraite 2022-14
Fred Boutet
Painting - 100 x 100 x 2.5 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1 inch
$1,073
Taj Mahal. India
Dominique Leroy
Photography - 60 x 90 x 2 cm Photography - 23.6 x 35.4 x 0.8 inch
$1,311
Currency War € VS ¥ - Version Vase
Li Lihong
Sculpture - 10.2 x 19.5 x 7.5 cm Sculpture - 4 x 7.7 x 3 inch
$596
Monochrome flowing rhythm
Nikolaos Schizas
Painting - 100 x 150 x 0.1 cm Painting - 39.4 x 59.1 x 0 inch
$4,868
Un caballo noble
Nikolaos Schizas
Painting - 100 x 150 x 0.1 cm Painting - 39.4 x 59.1 x 0 inch
$4,868
Internal Landscape
Nemanja Nikolic
Painting - 121.9 x 91.4 x 2 cm Painting - 48 x 36 x 0.8 inch
$1,906
Be Passive You Will Live Longer... (Black & white version)
Rero
Print - 60 x 40 x 0.01 cm Print - 23.6 x 15.7 x 0 inch
$715
Mots croisés 4
Jean-Claude Byandb
Photography - 85 x 80 x 0.1 cm Photography - 33.5 x 31.5 x 0 inch
$727
Enfantillages (série)
Nagsoul
Fine Art Drawings - 40 x 30 cm Fine Art Drawings - 15.7 x 11.8 inch
$715
Dream gallery (cattelan, Cindy Sherman, galerie perrotin) black
André Saraiva
Print - 100 x 70 cm Print - 39.4 x 27.6 inch
$601
Between remembering and forgetting n°2
Jiratchaya Pripwai
Painting - 100 x 100 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 0.8 inch
$4,351
Surrounded by Friends
Gaëtan de Séguin
Painting - 90 x 130 x 3 cm Painting - 35.4 x 51.2 x 1.2 inch
$4,769
Close from far away
Francesca Borgo
Painting - 61 x 50.8 x 3.2 cm Painting - 24 x 20 x 1.3 inch
$1,370
Crazy little Thing called Love
Katharina Hormel
Painting - 80 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
$715
Floating in light
Francesca Borgo
Painting - 50.8 x 76.2 x 0.3 cm Painting - 20 x 30 x 0.1 inch
$1,420
Abstract Landscape 24.08.21
Viktoria Ganhao
Painting - 80 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
$1,550
Lewis Carroll - Die jagd nach dem snark
Max Ernst
Print - 33 x 25 x 0.1 cm Print - 13 x 9.8 x 0 inch
$3,338
Upcyclic graffiti
Sumit Mehndiratta
Sculpture - 61 x 61 x 2.5 cm Sculpture - 24 x 24 x 1 inch
$1,967
Topology of feelings - II
Vladimir Kolosov
Painting - 40.6 x 30.5 x 1.9 cm Painting - 16 x 12 x 0.75 inch
$590
Superman Sovietique
Richard Orlinski
Sculpture - 105 x 70 x 30 cm Sculpture - 41.3 x 27.6 x 11.8 inch
$21,458
Saint Georges et le dragon
Jérôme Mesnager
Painting - 260 x 255 x 15 cm Painting - 102.4 x 100.4 x 5.9 inch
$41,724
