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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Chronometer Series 2
Lena Ochkalova
Painting - 65 x 50 x 0.1 cm Painting - 25.6 x 19.7 x 0 inch
$694
SAMO© - With or Without Your Approval
Al Diaz
Painting - 8 x 15 x 1 cm Painting - 3.1 x 5.9 x 0.4 inch
$578
Shadow Guzzler nr. 2
Marek Uhlir
Painting - 70.1 x 59.9 x 2.5 cm Painting - 27.6 x 23.6 x 1 inch
$750
Got the Blues
Markus Lippeck
Fine Art Drawings - 50 x 70 x 0.4 cm Fine Art Drawings - 19.7 x 27.6 x 0.2 inch
$913
Symphonie urbaine
Richard Poumelin
Painting - 60 x 60 x 3 cm Painting - 23.6 x 23.6 x 1.2 inch
$1,676
Portrait de Leopold Zborowski (d'après)
Amedeo Modigliani
Print - 46 x 30 x 0.2 cm Print - 18.1 x 11.8 x 0.1 inch
$1,387
Hellebore No. 30
Elizabeth Becker
Fine Art Drawings - 30.5 x 22.9 cm Fine Art Drawings - 12 x 9 inch
$150
Die Erde
Richard Laillier
Fine Art Drawings - 20 x 15 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 7.9 x 5.9 x 0.4 inch
$925
Falling Stars Les pids des reves- Tom & Jerry
Alexandre de Poplavsky
Sculpture - 56 x 30 x 40 cm Sculpture - 22 x 11.8 x 15.7 inch
$20,806
The Freedom Rider
Shahen Aleksandryan
Painting - 80 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
$1,400
Nude #2, With My Eyes Closed
Tom Russell
Fine Art Drawings - 29.2 x 20.3 x 5.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.5 x 8 x 2 inch
$650
Hommage à Pompon
Michel Audiard
Sculpture - 25 x 50 x 16 cm Sculpture - 9.8 x 19.7 x 6.3 inch
$1,503
Sleipnir Mini Grund VIII 87751
Duilio Forte
Sculpture - 51 x 45 x 30 cm Sculpture - 20.1 x 17.7 x 11.8 inch
$578
Trooper peinture sur Edition Hors série.
JP Malot
Print - 70 x 50 x 1 cm Print - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0.4 inch
$694
Restaurant place des Vosges
Jeff Bayley
Painting - 80 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
$694
Alive (unique acrylic and spray paint on canvas)
Hama Woods
Painting - 61 x 50.8 x 2.5 cm Painting - 24 x 20 x 1 inch
$3,500
Aquatinte originale abstraite J3
Godwin Hoffmann
Print - 76 x 56 x 0.05 cm Print - 29.9 x 22 x 0 inch
$925
Space Cowboy - Moox White Edition Small
Jules Holland
Sculpture - 25 x 20 x 15 cm Sculpture - 9.8 x 7.9 x 5.9 inch
$803
Stanza metafisica
Dr. Love
Fine Art Drawings - 39 x 27 x 0.4 cm Fine Art Drawings - 15.4 x 10.6 x 0.2 inch
$104
La petite fille et son grand pére
Muriel Deumie
Fine Art Drawings - 100 x 50 x 4 cm Fine Art Drawings - 39.4 x 19.7 x 1.6 inch
$925
Vibrations, aquagravure originale
Martha Rodriguez
Print - 53 x 53 x 0.3 cm Print - 20.9 x 20.9 x 0.1 inch
$809
Pour que tu m’aimes encore
Yohan Storti
Fine Art Drawings - 27.9 x 41 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11 x 16.1 x 0 inch
$636
Invisible Narratives 8.
Petr Strnad
Fine Art Drawings - 30 x 40 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.8 x 15.7 x 0 inch
$370
Tina Turner, Paris
Bob Gruen
Photography - 35.6 x 27.9 x 1.3 cm Photography - 14 x 11 x 0.5 inch
$1,950
Bouledogue Français
Serge Kalinowski
Painting - 100 x 100 x 3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1.2 inch
$631
The Girl's Own Paper, 1885
Alexander Korzer-Robinson
Sculpture - 29 x 22 x 5 cm Sculpture - 11.4 x 8.7 x 2 inch
$925
Osmose - série sculpture et corps en matière
Jf Carer
Sculpture - 79 x 31 x 31 cm Sculpture - 31.1 x 12.2 x 12.2 inch
$12,137
Calligraphing en l'air #6
Cody Choi
Photography - 75 x 50 x 1.5 cm Photography - 29.5 x 19.7 x 0.6 inch
$2,059
Set of 2 Photographs. Cyanotype photograph of the ocean waves
Paola Dávila
Photography - 60 x 228 x 0.3 cm Photography - 23.6 x 89.8 x 0.1 inch
$7,200
Grandma Divers IX
Alain Schroeder
Photography - 120 x 80 x 1 cm Photography - 47.2 x 31.5 x 0.4 inch
$2,890
This Wallpaper is not Avaiable
Chiara Santoro
Painting - 50 x 50 x 1.8 cm Painting - 19.7 x 19.7 x 0.7 inch
$578
N° 2601 Modern Art - Black and White Edition
Christoph Prein
Painting - 120 x 150 x 0.1 cm Painting - 47.2 x 59.1 x 0 inch
$1,387
