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White & Metal II
Attila Mata
Sculpture - 103 x 52 x 60 cm Sculpture - 40.6 x 20.5 x 23.6 inch
$13,285
Restaurant Paris
Marco Santaniello
Painting - 61.3 x 90 x 3 cm Painting - 24.1 x 35.4 x 1.2 inch
$5,045
Pont de pierre dans la brume
Aurélie Trabaud
Painting - 25 x 25 x 1 cm Painting - 9.8 x 9.8 x 0.4 inch
$656
Absence with Earth and Green
Paul Lorenz
Painting - 46 x 46 x 0.1 cm Painting - 18.1 x 18.1 x 0 inch
$2,579
Absence with Black and Valley
Paul Lorenz
Painting - 46 x 46 x 0.1 cm Painting - 18.1 x 18.1 x 0 inch
$2,579
Absence with black and Ochre
Paul Lorenz
Painting - 46 x 46 x 0.1 cm Painting - 18.1 x 18.1 x 0 inch
$2,579
Absence with Black and Horizon
Paul Lorenz
Painting - 46 x 46 x 0.1 cm Painting - 18.1 x 18.1 x 0 inch
$2,579
Absence with Black and Fortress
Paul Lorenz
Painting - 46 x 46 x 0.1 cm Painting - 18.1 x 18.1 x 0 inch
$2,579
Armor
Rossella Mercedes
Fine Art Drawings - 21 x 29.7 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 8.3 x 11.7 x 0 inch
$191
La pierre et le vent
Thalia Dalecky
Painting - 20 x 40 x 2 cm Painting - 7.9 x 15.7 x 0.8 inch
$1,099
Dance of light and shadow
Svetlana Martin
Painting - 50 x 40 x 0.7 cm Painting - 19.7 x 15.7 x 0.3 inch
$774
Yuxtaposición (Juxtaposition)
Juan Jose Hoyos Quiles
Painting - 76.2 x 101.6 x 3.8 cm Painting - 30 x 40 x 1.5 inch
$2,160
Points of view III
Jessica M. Chaix
Painting - 121.9 x 152.4 x 3.8 cm Painting - 48 x 60 x 1.5 inch
$4,600
Chromatic reflections
Esteban Vera
Painting - 110 x 89.9 x 5.1 cm Painting - 43.3 x 35.4 x 2 inch
$3,320
Envolving pathways
Esteban Vera
Painting - 119.9 x 99.8 x 5.1 cm Painting - 47.2 x 39.3 x 2 inch
$3,420
336 Bridge over Arno river
Anne B Schwartz
Painting - 91.4 x 91.4 x 91.4 cm Painting - 36 x 36 x 36 inch
$4,275
181 Before harvest
Anne B Schwartz
Painting - 43.2 x 43.2 x 3.8 cm Painting - 17 x 17 x 1.5 inch
$2,200
Ecstasy of St Teresa (medium)
Jesus Torio
Photography - 84.1 x 57.7 x 0.2 cm Photography - 33.1 x 22.7 x 0.1 inch
$1,457
Into the darkness (medium)
Jesus Torio
Photography - 32.29 x 84.1 x 0.2 cm Photography - 12.7 x 33.1 x 0.1 inch
$1,457
392 spring in Capri
Anne B Schwartz
Painting - 50.8 x 50.8 x 3.8 cm Painting - 20 x 20 x 1.5 inch
$2,650
The space between II
Claire Smith
Painting - 80 x 80 x 4 cm Painting - 31.5 x 31.5 x 1.6 inch
$2,121
Spinning Antlers
Moises Morgenstern
Sculpture - 160 x 86.4 x 50.8 cm Sculpture - 63 x 34 x 20 inch
$23,000
L'annonciation (Islande)
Vincent Citot
Photography - 40 x 60 x 1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 23.6 x 0.4 inch
$841
Há lados VI (2)
Gersony Silva
Fine Art Drawings - 45.5 x 30.5 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 17.9 x 12 x 0.4 inch
$1,570
Há lados VI (1)
Gersony Silva
Fine Art Drawings - 45.5 x 30.5 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 17.9 x 12 x 0.4 inch
$1,570
Há lados IV (1)
Gersony Silva
Fine Art Drawings - 21 x 50.5 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 8.3 x 19.9 x 0.4 inch
$1,570
Há lados II (2)
Gersony Silva
Fine Art Drawings - 15 x 28 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 5.9 x 11 x 0.4 inch
$1,345
Há lados II (1)
Gersony Silva
Fine Art Drawings - 15 x 28 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 5.9 x 11 x 0.4 inch
$1,345
Há lados I (2)
Gersony Silva
Fine Art Drawings - 30 x 15 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.8 x 5.9 x 0.4 inch
$1,457
Mémoire dans l'eau 10T-IX
Akané Kirimura
Painting - 80 x 60 x 1 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0.4 inch
$4,709
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!