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

J+ homme au A ocre

Ombre Grigie

Pop Artstrong

Medusas’ Protective Gaze

Untitled - Tiles

Silver Earth

Sheep Portfolio 1

Pont de pierre dans la brume

Planche de l'Almanach 4

Visual Dance - White and Gold - Framed

La Nascita, Milano Centrale, Italie

Modou, blanc jaune

Orogenèse XXIII (SG238)

Amalt

Optichromie 143

Monolanche

Elastic thoughts

Natures Mortes

Les uns contre les autres... (Esprit voile)

Peinture abstraite 01-2025-9

Peinture abstraite 01-2025-10

Between remembering and forgetting n°2

Acquisition

Pop Snoopy

82

85

Still sounds

Andalouse White (LC77)

XXXL Abstract Antarctica (Diptych)

Best Moments III

Smiling into your eyes

Atlas & Gold Glove

White Astronout

Close from far away

Santé

Hercules in Flight

David in Meditation with Neon Design

Sans titre #4

Nupcias

Untituled 1

Points et lignes

Composition 307

Composition 305

Composition 302

House N

Composition

Golden mountain

Marine abstraite 2023-29

Marine abstraite 2023-25

Forever Young

I choose peace 02

The first white snow

Caldera 9

Caldera 10

Peinture 11-2023-67

Peinture 11-2023-70

This is not a Phone

Untitled

Kiss Me

Dog Save the Queen

NYC

Soirée a Natashquan Canada

Luna tra i rami

Dream gallery (cattelan, Cindy Sherman, galerie perrotin) black

The Love we Share

Awakening Together