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!
Save your search and find it in your favorites
Save your search to find it quickly
Saved search
Your search is accessible from the favorites tab > My favorite searches
Unsaved search
A problem occurred
The first white snow
Nataliia Krykun
Painting - 40 x 40 x 2 cm Painting - 15.7 x 15.7 x 0.8 inch
$1,521
Scratch on the Wire
Shepard Fairey (Obey)
Print - 60.96 x 60.96 x 0.2 cm Print - 24 x 24 x 0.1 inch
$526
The woods are lovely, dark and deep…
Daria Luhova
Painting - 81 x 72 x 6 cm Painting - 31.9 x 28.3 x 2.4 inch
$1,521
Rivière de diamants
Charlotte Orel
Painting - 60 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 23.6 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
$1,404
Bride and Groom
Menashe Kadishman
Painting - 60 x 80 x 3 cm Painting - 23.6 x 31.5 x 1.2 inch
$3,900
Bourgeois Big Top
Scott Troxel
Sculpture - 55.9 x 34.3 x 8.3 cm Sculpture - 22 x 13.5 x 3.25 inch
$1,638
Meditation
Gina Vor
Fine Art Drawings - 55.5 x 76 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 21.9 x 29.9 x 0 inch
$702
URBN City Mixed Media I
Sven Pfrommer
Painting - 40 x 40 x 2 cm Painting - 15.7 x 15.7 x 0.8 inch
$807
Chanel n°5 bottle, Miss Chanel
Patrick Cornée
Sculpture - 27 x 20 x 6 cm Sculpture - 10.6 x 7.9 x 2.4 inch
$3,393
Chanel n°5, kaws, I love pop art
Patrick Cornée
Sculpture - 27 x 20 x 6 cm Sculpture - 10.6 x 7.9 x 2.4 inch
$3,393 $3,054
Le clown, le jongleur et la danseuse
Sabine Louriac
Painting - 65 x 50 x 0.3 cm Painting - 25.6 x 19.7 x 0.1 inch
$608
La tendresse est belle
Milcheva Emilia
Painting - 50 x 50 x 2 cm Painting - 19.7 x 19.7 x 0.8 inch
$585
Curva 26/18
J/Y Delaunay-Israël
Fine Art Drawings - 93 x 62 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 36.6 x 24.4 x 0.4 inch
$813
Coluche - Iconic portraits
Arnaud Baumann
Photography - 60 x 40 x 0.1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 15.7 x 0 inch
$702
Jean-Marc Barr
Arnaud Baumann
Photography - 40 x 40 x 0.1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 15.7 x 0 inch
$702
Heart(black and white)-IV
Stanislav Bojankov
Painting - 120 x 120 x 2 cm Painting - 47.2 x 47.2 x 0.8 inch
$2,340
Le Legacy from Historia de Don Quichotte de la Mancha
Salvador Dali
Print - 75.9 x 56.2 cm Print - 29.88 x 22.13 inch
$3,000
Untitled No.106
Sumit Mehndiratta
Painting - 76 x 76 x 3 cm Painting - 29.9 x 29.9 x 1.2 inch
$1,111
L'homme est la fleur de la Terre... (Terre d’enfants)
Olivier Messas
Sculpture - 56 x 30 x 6 cm Sculpture - 22 x 11.8 x 2.4 inch
$3,042
Timeless Equestrian Elegance Sculpture
Dervis Akdemir
Sculpture - 57 x 37 x 35 cm Sculpture - 22.4 x 14.6 x 13.8 inch
Sold
The Light Will Come
Paresh Nrshinga
Painting - 100 x 100 x 4 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1.6 inch
$2,457
Two Landscapes 66
Yasuo Kiyonaga
Photography - 48.3 x 32.9 x 0.1 cm Photography - 19 x 13 x 0 inch
$702
London, lithograpie originale
Tony Soulié
Print - 90 x 76 x 0.5 cm Print - 35.4 x 29.9 x 0.2 inch
$1,053
Desert signe LIX (SG250)
Sylvie Guyomard
Sculpture - 50 x 40 x 5 cm Sculpture - 19.7 x 15.7 x 2 inch
$456
Desert signe LVII (SG248)
Sylvie Guyomard
Sculpture - 50 x 40 x 5 cm Sculpture - 19.7 x 15.7 x 2 inch
$456
Desert Signe XXXV (SG222)
Sylvie Guyomard
Sculpture - 50 x 40 x 3 cm Sculpture - 19.7 x 15.7 x 1.2 inch
$573
Set of 2 Carved Porcelain Vases. From Unsung Muses Collection
Alex Hodge
Design - 91.4 x 108 x 25.4 cm Design - 36 x 42.5 x 10 inch
$8,000
N° 1270 Massada. Le scribe.
R. Cavalié
Painting - 41 x 27 x 2 cm Painting - 16.1 x 10.6 x 0.8 inch
$585
Unchartered Waters of Love
Lilly Muth
Painting - 100 x 100 x 3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1.2 inch
$1,872
Flowerball (3D) From the Realm of the Dead
Takashi Murakami
Print - 71 x 71 cm Print - 28 x 28 inch
$5,265
Slim: Blue energy 1
Peter Nottrott
Painting - 80 x 200 x 4 cm Painting - 31.5 x 78.7 x 1.6 inch
$2,866
Turbulence in Kyoto 546
Yasuo Kiyonaga
Photography - 30.9 x 46.3 x 0.1 cm Photography - 12.2 x 18.2 x 0 inch
$936