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

La passionnée

Plein les yeux

Le grand soir

Bride and Groom

Copy of the picture (Roses in a glass vase) (1919) Edward Vuar

The Masquerade

Carnival

Crazy little Thing called Love

Village de campagne 3

Horizon 2

Reversed Double Helix, White

Covers 13 Red 2

Lliri

Paisatje II

Où est Charlie ? III

X-men Tornade - Storm

Undercover Bear Companion White

Holiday Shanghai Big Moon

Big Bear Chanel

Les arbres 08.10.24

Amour Toujours

Mirages #0

Bitcoin in abstract art 2

Gilda

Turbulence in Kyoto 3755

La famille heureuse... "Bonheur" [version : blanche] (Histoire de famille 2021)

Jamais deux sans trois... "Harmonie" [ version : blanche ] (Série : Histoire de famille 2021)

Le Legacy from Historia de Don Quichotte de la Mancha

Figure

Contra l'atzar

75 CIO Lausanne

Slim: Black And White 2

Mer et rochers - Paysage marin abstrait à l'encre de chine

Paysage marocain

Life Paths XL 1

Nature adventure XL 22

Le semeur de printemps

Awesome Dreamworld XL 1

Thunder And Lightning M 1/Oil

Lumières florales

White butterfly, bronze stripe

TT38SN

My Lovely Dog

Les murs ont des oreilles

Snoozing in Sunshine

Musack Terry Hall tribute

The Illustrated book

Dancing girl

Deer

Cacao

Index #13

Index #10

Concept #75

Scratch on the Wire

Lewis Carroll - Die jagd nach dem snark

Tigre du Bengale. Inde

Telle la hache

Nancy

Abstract cityscape in yellow

Etude 120

Nice warm day

In the Yard

Nailed it series no. 166

Danse d'un Faune

Paris, La Défense

L'homme blanc qui vole