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!

Search by Image

Save your search and find it in your favorites

15/100 1 10 13 14 15 16 17 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Categories

Subcategories

White

Planche de l'Almanach 4

One breath

Une nuit pluvieuse

Marine abstraite 80

Minimal Forms 02

Woman walking with a dog

Café de Paris

Thales pattern

Le chat sauvage

Cycles X

Life after fiction

Zen Circle (Stretched)

Zhuzha

Couleur abricot

The Golden Lotus Lake

Desert signe LV (SG246)

Peinture abstraite 01-2025-9

Drifting

Forest Whitaker

Coastal ripples

Composition No. 323

Composition No.252

Melkaj

Bouquet of White flowers in a blue vase on red. Still life

Black And White Abstract No. 4

Drifting

Blinding Lights

From the Series Infinite Fright

One love

Best Friends

Fairytales

Wise Man

NYC

Celestial sky

Come dance with me

Daily dream

Pointilism 3

Abstraction 156

Abstraction 155

Abstraction 152

Abstraction 151

Abstraction 150

Abstraction 145

Contraste

Underground

Mais je ne ferai pas de mal à une mouche

Marine abstraite 2024-48

Lithosphere 207

Henry V, from Much Ado about Shakespeare

Invader 2 - XL

Paint your dream (AP)

82

Two Halves Make A Whole Handmade Sculpture for Home Decor

Flowers for you

Amy Winehouse, do it with style

Dark blue

Santé

Déjeuner fantôme

Andhana

Paysages 144

Petali di luce

Visayas N I (SG267)

Fragments de Chine

She always remembers him

Sans titre 13

Gray's Anatomy