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

Le lapin blanc

Le coup de pied aux étoiles

Bravery

Print Goldorak #3

Pand'ours pop art Dior red

Cailloux Givrés

Dot white

Mother and child

N° 1065 The best place

Hercules Last Supper

Eglogue citadine II

Tempted

Afraid

Graff & Griff

Old man with glasses

Lady birds 4

Falling in my garden

Abstrait 1636

Appalachians No. 14

Appalachians No. 2

Le QG de carton.

Flatland II.

Composition Abstraite Ref AB0248

Wild lens - Elephant XXIV

Wild lens - Big Five I

Fluid horizon V

Fluid horizon XI

Fluid horizon XVII

Fluid horizon XVIII

HK fragments IV

Seaflower II

Saigon blur XXXVII

Myanmar blur XLVI

Airport I

Saigon blur LXXXV

Airport XXX

Airport XXXI

Airport XLV

Airport XL

Burma blur XI

Human sensor III

Urban blur II

Human order IX

Warmin Poles - Océan et fonds marins

Mountains

Mountain

Chronometer series 1 Turbulence of Time

Wind & Water

Net for dreaming clouds

Cloud Structure

Rain is shaking pine trees

And here they stand at night

Arguments for Nothing

Ballerina

Abstract

Butterfly effect #2

Le réconfort 9

Mademoiselle Colette

Inverno a Burano

Défendez-moi 89

Regality

Sculptures Duo

New Mexico No. 12

Rainbow Unicorn Handmade Sculpture for Home Decor

Appalachians No. 13

The artist (F.U.A.I.)