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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Categories

Subcategories

White

Eros and Thanatos

Figure

Portrait of a boy

Luna

Le rêve

Portrait of a boy

The boy on the motorcycle

Smiling Boy

Nude

Confrontation

Nude of Boy

Two Friends Walking on the Beach

Open Heart PolaLab

Oinochoe Plate for Martini & Rossi

Nude

Strong Enough PolaLab

Twirling in the Air PolaLab

Overwhelmed PolaLab

Me PolaLab

Strong Beauty PolaLab

Nude

Nude

Nude

Nude

Alek Wek

Georgianna

La manzana de Éva

Venus con marioneta

Shirley

Emotion of skin

Aleksa blur

Le philosophe

Pygmalion & Galateea – Metamorphosis

Laetitia

White 2

Elle Mon bain /

White 14

Unconditionally

Abstract 22126

Sans titre #5

Untitled. 11.13.22

Memories

Yengar (1)

Dratya

La belle époque

Abstract 2266

Hope Street Art

Keepsake

Orogenèse XXII (SG237)

Branch Study No. 39

Meet me at our spot

Subjective - VI

Abstract 2238

Optichromie112p

Desert signe LVI (SG247)

La bande de copains... (version cube blanc)

Untitled 96

Abstract 22164

Abstract 22123

Abstract 22121

Abstract 22104

Abstract 22103

Abstract 2295

Abstract 2293

Abstract 1267

Contorsion I