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L'Innocente intacte - Format S
Mathilde Oscar
Photography - 90 x 60 x 1 cm Photography - 35.4 x 23.6 x 0.4 inch
$1,345
L'Innocente intacte - Format XS
Mathilde Oscar
Photography - 60 x 40 x 1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 15.7 x 0.4 inch
$673
Rhythmogramm 183 A
Heinrich Heidersberger
Photography - 59.4 x 42 x 0.1 cm Photography - 23.4 x 16.5 x 0 inch
$1,513
Peinture 11-2023-70
Alain Bécanne
Painting - 100 x 150 x 4.5 cm Painting - 39.4 x 59.1 x 1.8 inch
$1,682
L'impossible rapport sexuel IV
Olivier Hache
Painting - 116 x 81 x 5 cm Painting - 45.7 x 31.9 x 2 inch
$1,794
Cecil's triple action
Matthew Rose
Painting - 30 x 24 x 2 cm Painting - 11.8 x 9.4 x 0.8 inch
$1,009
Transformation - Pixi kk 62 2a-3-02 x
Hein Gravenhorst
Print - 30 x 30 x 0.1 cm Print - 11.8 x 11.8 x 0 inch
$1,570
Transformation - Pixi kk 62 2a-3-01 x
Hein Gravenhorst
Print - 30 x 30 x 0.1 cm Print - 11.8 x 11.8 x 0 inch
$1,570
Kara et ses oreilles
Fatoumata Diabaté
Photography - 100 x 66 x 2 cm Photography - 39.4 x 26 x 0.8 inch
$3,363
Hotel Chelsea, New York. Eighth Floor, South
Victoria Cohen
Photography - 67.6 x 101.6 x 0.3 cm Photography - 26.6 x 40 x 0.1 inch
$3,200
A Thousand Mountains
Laurence Gallien
Photography - 100 x 100 x 0.1 cm Photography - 39.4 x 39.4 x 0 inch
$2,018
Au Bord du Lac de l'Immortelle Blancheur
Laurence Gallien
Photography - 80 x 120 x 0.1 cm Photography - 31.5 x 47.2 x 0 inch
$2,130
Echo d'un Rêve
Laurence Gallien
Photography - 80 x 120 x 0.1 cm Photography - 31.5 x 47.2 x 0 inch
$2,130
Midnight Flowers
Kirill Postovit
Painting - 100 x 70 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 27.6 x 0.8 inch
$1,682
Mother Earth
Parimah Avani
Fine Art Drawings - 120 x 45 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 47.2 x 17.7 x 0.1 inch
$1,121
30cm Heart CH Tribute Black
Naor
Sculpture - 30 x 15 x 10 cm Sculpture - 11.8 x 5.9 x 3.9 inch
$1,491
35cm Teddy CH Tribute, Chrome White
Naor
Sculpture - 35 x 25 x 28 cm Sculpture - 13.8 x 9.8 x 11 inch
$1,312
Contemporary portrait - I'll Tell You...
Nataliya Bagatskaya
Painting - 80 x 60 x 1.5 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0.6 inch
$1,457
Morning glow- Sunrise Over the Lake, Serene Oil Artwork
Serhii Cherniakovskyi
Painting - 80 x 90 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 35.4 x 0.8 inch
$2,700
Coin Coin Colors
Bernard Saint-Maxent
Painting - 29 x 24 x 3 cm Painting - 11.4 x 9.4 x 1.2 inch
$325
Jungle 3D - Diptyque n°02
La Robotte
Painting - 65 x 54 x 3 cm Painting - 25.6 x 21.3 x 1.2 inch
$897
Jungle 3D - Diptyque n°01
La Robotte
Painting - 65 x 54 x 3 cm Painting - 25.6 x 21.3 x 1.2 inch
$897
Peinture 11-2023-67
Alain Bécanne
Painting - 120 x 120 x 4.5 cm Painting - 47.2 x 47.2 x 1.8 inch
$1,345
Diptych: Dream Within A Dream
Ewa Matyja
Painting - 180 x 300 x 0.1 cm Painting - 70.9 x 118.1 x 0 inch
$7,954
Aus dem Gruppenbuch der Christiane P. - Umerziehung Der Vögel II
Matthias Leupold
Photography - 50 x 40 x 0.1 cm Photography - 19.7 x 15.7 x 0 inch
$1,009
London, lithograpie originale
Tony Soulié
Print - 90 x 76 x 0.5 cm Print - 35.4 x 29.9 x 0.2 inch
$1,009
Porsche 911-930 Turbo
Angélique Dufossé
Painting - 50 x 100 x 2.5 cm Painting - 19.7 x 39.4 x 1 inch
$1,794
C’est un téléphone
Angélique Dufossé
Painting - 60 x 60 x 2.5 cm Painting - 23.6 x 23.6 x 1 inch
$1,110
Cache-cache Lamborghini
Angélique Dufossé
Painting - 92 x 73 x 2.5 cm Painting - 36.2 x 28.7 x 1 inch
$1,906
Brigitte Bardot "Kitchen"
Peter Donkersloot
Painting - 150 x 120 x 3 cm Painting - 59.1 x 47.2 x 1.2 inch
$9,529
Communion Sylvestre
Corine Lescop
Painting - 70 x 70 x 2.5 cm Painting - 27.6 x 27.6 x 1 inch
$1,457
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!