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

Abstract 22142

Painter Can

Mir

Composition 301

Covers 13 Green

Breeze - Arm Chair

En équilibre

Her Softness

White Blossoms - white grey green floral art on canvas

Psychopomp Hermes

Sans titre

Moses

4 Seasons Spring

Snow-Covered Serenity

North 5

Bande ut

Sans titre (185)

Sans titre

Assha

The dog

3 Bassins - Numéro 1

Untitled

Le Mans diptyque

Face aux instants

2022/12-1- GA55

Process #1

Never another word

Digging for clams

Picasso Preside la Corrida - Frejus, 1962

Estro

Stellaire

Molécul’air blanc

Underground

Existence21

Entre Vous & Nous

DeLorean

On the Back 1

Le trait - 04

This is us, Vacation on the Happy Island series

Lightness

Circle three

Beyond the Visible (multi dimensional tower sculpture)

A un passo dal cielo

Art Lovers hand finished

Untitled

Door to infinity #4

En Cuba

Sans titre 14

The little white butterflies

Spacecolour 4

Sans titre

Black Girl in Origami Dress with Rooste II, Framed

Hypocondriac Unicorn

Jerrican chanel white

Prince

XXIV 05 015

Unchanging whispers

Sin título

Montañas

Balance Series #10

Rocketman - collection spéciale Grands Formats

Nuances ocres

La Nascita, Milano Centrale, Italie

Abstraction

Zybride #2 - Vorjak

E=M love au carré - 2