
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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Black Burger CH Tribute
Di Lorenzo
Sculpture - 17 x 17 x 17 cm Sculpture - 6.7 x 6.7 x 6.7 inch
€840


Hermitage I, St Petersburg, Russia
Massimo Listri
Photography - 120 x 150 cm Photography - 47.2 x 59.1 inch
€12,500

Kyne & Nonchelee - Untitled (Pink)
KYNE
Print - 52 x 42 x 0.1 cm Print - 20.5 x 16.5 x 0 inch
€6,880

Sur le Sable III - Estampe en relief inspirée de la nature
Mapie BelGary
Painting - 20 x 20 x 0.1 cm Painting - 7.9 x 7.9 x 0 inch
€275

Subconscious
Gaetano Pergamo
Painting - 69.9 x 49.5 x 1.5 cm Painting - 27.5 x 19.5 x 0.6 inch
€1,118











Se non c'è pace, non c'è pane
Maria Luisa Imperiali
Photography - 70 x 60 x 13 cm Photography - 27.6 x 23.6 x 5.1 inch
€1,500 €1,350


Big Love: Majestic Eagle
Ekaterina Khovanskaya
Painting - 100 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
€1,408




A longing no. 14
Joseph Adolphe
Painting - 203 x 182 x 4 cm Painting - 79.9 x 71.7 x 1.6 inch
€36,000


A light at the end of the tunnel
Anna Artemieva
Painting - 50 x 40 x 2 cm Painting - 19.7 x 15.7 x 0.8 inch
€469


Parchemin rouge
Benjamin II Vautier
Painting - 41 x 33 x 0.5 cm Painting - 16.1 x 13 x 0.2 inch
€922


Train
Ryan Travis Christian
Fine Art Drawings - 21.59 x 27.94 x 1.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 8.5 x 11 x 0.6 inch
€9,857 €8,871


La femme est une rose
Jacques Bronner
Painting - 90 x 73 x 2 cm Painting - 35.4 x 28.7 x 0.8 inch
€2,500

Study for NULL (Does appearance produce bias #076)
Yutaka Hashimoto
Painting - 80.3 x 100 x 2.54 cm Painting - 31.6 x 39.4 x 1 inch
€8,918 €8,026


Abandoned yard.
Giulnara Khabibulina
Painting - 48 x 58 x 0.1 cm Painting - 18.9 x 22.8 x 0 inch
€1,800

Rhythmogramm 183A
Heinrich Heidersberger
Photography - 59.4 x 42 x 0.1 cm Photography - 23.4 x 16.5 x 0 inch
€1,350



Le rêveur - série oiseaux
Henry Ausloos
Photography - 40 x 60 x 0.1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 23.6 x 0 inch
€720


Medusa 2
Lucio Forte
Fine Art Drawings - 18 x 17 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 7.1 x 6.7 x 0.1 inch
€120


Series Fusion black and white
Petra Reissmann
Painting - 30 x 24 x 3 cm Painting - 11.8 x 9.4 x 1.2 inch
€1,600

Mode Shape - Plate 22
Alexander Rocco
Photography - 71.1 x 50.8 x 1.3 cm Photography - 28 x 20 x 0.5 inch
€2,253



Monster
Albert Decaris
Fine Art Drawings - 33 x 25 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 13 x 9.8 x 0 inch
€580

Golden abstract
Tanya Stefanovich
Painting - 71.1 x 88.9 x 2 cm Painting - 28 x 35 x 0.8 inch
€1,061

Skiers XII (December)
Ernesto Dick
Painting - 23 x 44 x 0.2 cm Painting - 9.1 x 17.3 x 0.1 inch
€1,800

Fonte des glaces
Aurélien Guiho
Sculpture - 73 x 53 x 4 cm Sculpture - 28.7 x 20.9 x 1.6 inch
€1,400


Blue woman Mountain top
Yahaira Cohinta Vannucchi
Painting - 60 x 91 x 3 cm Painting - 23.6 x 35.8 x 1.2 inch
€4,950


Inconnu
Sonic (Jesse Rodriguez)
Painting - 27 x 116 x 0.3 cm Painting - 10.6 x 45.7 x 0.1 inch
€1,500

8 actos de genuflexión
Ana Pérez Pereda
Sculpture - 200 x 20 x 8 cm Sculpture - 78.7 x 7.9 x 3.1 inch
€1,200



Flower
Pavlos Dionyssopoulos
Fine Art Drawings - 20 x 13.5 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.1 inch
€700


Dots variation bleu
Ferri Garcès
Sculpture - 50 x 50 x 4 cm Sculpture - 19.7 x 19.7 x 1.6 inch
€4,500





Diálogo Entre Yayoi y Miró 1
Lorena Barros
Painting - 73 x 103 x 3 cm Painting - 28.7 x 40.6 x 1.2 inch
€3,700


The romantic and you
Cheng Cheng Yi
Painting - 80 x 60 x 4 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 1.6 inch
€4,800


Broken Button
Claes Oldenburg
Fine Art Drawings - 41 x 36 x 16 cm Fine Art Drawings - 16.1 x 14.2 x 6.3 inch
€19,244 €17,320

Tableaux N° 1 et N° 2
Thierry Robert
Sculpture - 39 x 25 x 1 cm Sculpture - 15.4 x 9.8 x 0.4 inch
€500 €450

Revelation in Abstraction
Nytia Jenkins
Painting - 27.94 x 35.56 x 2 cm Painting - 11 x 14 x 0.8 inch
€2,400


King be shaved
James Ogamba Tochukwu
Painting - 127 x 101.6 x 2.5 cm Painting - 50 x 40 x 1 inch
€2,347



La Victoire de Samothrace
Les Frères Guinet
Sculpture - 56 x 30 x 30 cm Sculpture - 22 x 11.8 x 11.8 inch
€3,000

Meditating in the mountain
Robert Stieghorst
Photography - 48.5 x 21.5 cm Photography - 19.1 x 8.5 inch
€3,000


Glitch #01. From the series Glitch
Yongwon Noh
Design - 26.9 x 9.9 x 9.9 cm Design - 10.6 x 3.9 x 3.9 inch
€751

Topographie végétale (2)
Sophie Zénon
Sculpture - 50 x 15 x 15 cm Sculpture - 19.7 x 5.9 x 5.9 inch
€2,200

Duality
Alexandre de Poplavsky
Painting - 150 x 100 x 3.5 cm Painting - 59.1 x 39.4 x 1.4 inch
€28,000


Eyes on me custom skate deck skateboard
Andrew Wallas
Painting - 22 x 85 x 1 cm Painting - 8.7 x 33.5 x 0.4 inch
€850

Grammature Di Colore (Color Weight)
Elio Marchegiani
Print - 47.5 x 65 x 0.2 cm Print - 18.7 x 25.6 x 0.1 inch
€280


Sleeping in the snow Part I
Kyriakos Kaziras
Photography - 30 x 45 cm Photography - 11.8 x 17.7 inch
€1,800

Tante Suzanne - Visage figuratif laine feutrée
Josée Mesnard
Painting - 20 x 20 x 2 cm Painting - 7.9 x 7.9 x 0.8 inch
€135

Le Sacré coeur - Paris et son architecture
Lucien Dufour
Painting - 65 x 92 x 2 cm Painting - 25.6 x 36.2 x 0.8 inch
€1,875

Voiturette vintage blanche
Art Pej
Sculpture - 40 x 77 x 41 cm Sculpture - 15.7 x 30.3 x 16.1 inch
€580