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The Split
Korede Solaja
Fine Art Drawings - 59 x 49 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 23.2 x 19.3 x 0.4 inch
$3,507
Autum birch trees
Alvaro Petritoli
Painting - 72 x 40 x 3 cm Painting - 28.3 x 15.7 x 1.2 inch
$1,301
Moon night cloud
Alvaro Petritoli
Painting - 31 x 39 x 3 cm Painting - 12.2 x 15.4 x 1.2 inch
$1,245
Two Black Cats on the Sofa - Painting with Mona Lisa
Nataliya Bagatskaya
Painting - 90 x 65 x 2 cm Painting - 35.4 x 25.6 x 0.8 inch
$2,244
New Hat - Narrative painting with Mona Lisa
Nataliya Bagatskaya
Painting - 90 x 65 x 2 cm Painting - 35.4 x 25.6 x 0.8 inch
$2,244
Porsche 911 930 Turbo
Angélique Dufossé
Painting - 50 x 100 x 2 cm Painting - 19.7 x 39.4 x 0.8 inch
$1,784
Artemisia
Marie Julou (Tina McCallan)
Painting - 60.5 x 50 x 2 cm Painting - 23.8 x 19.7 x 0.8 inch
$1,122
Make Love Not War
Diederik Van Apple
Sculpture - 36 x 16 x 15 cm Sculpture - 14.2 x 6.3 x 5.9 inch
$780
Steady as she goes
Newel Hunter
Painting - 111.8 x 88.9 x 0.5 cm Painting - 44 x 35 x 0.2 inch
$5,950
Le temps des fleurs
Virginia Benedicto
Painting - 73 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 28.7 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
$1,458
The Bunny and the Man (S)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 50.8 x 76.2 cm Photography - 20 x 30 inch
$5,000
The Anonymity of Shape (M)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 76.2 x 76.2 cm Photography - 30 x 30 inch
$5,000
The Anonymity of Shape (S)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 45.7 x 45.7 cm Photography - 18 x 18 inch
$2,500
Soldier Silhouette (XS)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 38.1 x 50.8 cm Photography - 15 x 20 inch
$2,500
Dandelion World
Christian Frederiksen
Painting - 10 x 15 x 0.5 cm Painting - 3.9 x 5.9 x 0.2 inch
$819
Starry sky black and white abstraction dropping Pop Art
Nataliia Krykun
Painting - 40 x 30 x 4 cm Painting - 15.7 x 11.8 x 1.6 inch
$886
Series Alpine Skiing, Snowboarding, winter mountains white 3D plaster
Nataliia Krykun
Painting - 50 x 40 x 2 cm Painting - 19.7 x 15.7 x 0.8 inch
$1,122
Étude de la sculpture "Nzuri"
Aude Herlédan
Fine Art Drawings - 50 x 40 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 19.7 x 15.7 x 0.1 inch
$6,731
Jjirasi Vase #05. From the series Jjirasi Vase
Yongwon Noh
Design - 9.9 x 11.9 x 11.9 cm Design - 3.9 x 4.7 x 4.7 inch
$1,000
Human preservation (5)
Julien Delagrange
Fine Art Drawings - 40 x 30 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 15.7 x 11.8 x 0 inch
$2,019
The shell (after marcel broodthaers) forbidden collage (11)
Julien Delagrange
Painting - 40 x 30 x 0.1 cm Painting - 15.7 x 11.8 x 0 inch
$2,019
Horizon Carbone (2)
Christophe Ruiz
Painting - 80 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
$1,010
Vagabondages 4
Carlos Arriagada
Photography - 75 x 50 x 0.1 cm Photography - 29.5 x 19.7 x 0 inch
$1,627
Papaver 2
Béa Bealaff-Girotto
Fine Art Drawings - 20 x 20 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 7.9 x 7.9 x 0.4 inch
$673
Unanticipated Interaction
Newel Hunter
Painting - 45.7 x 61 x 2 cm Painting - 18 x 24 x 0.8 inch
$2,300
Mirro conversation 03
Poonam Choudhary
Painting - 61 x 45.7 x 2.5 cm Painting - 24 x 18 x 1 inch
$200
Mirror Conversations 02
Poonam Choudhary
Painting - 61 x 91.4 x 2.5 cm Painting - 24 x 36 x 1 inch
$450
Snoopy drank to much Dom Pérignon champagne
Patrick Cornée
Painting - 80 x 80 x 3 cm Painting - 31.5 x 31.5 x 1.2 inch
$3,590
La fratrie n°3 a
Michel Bassompierre
Sculpture - 12 x 9 x 9.5 cm Sculpture - 4.7 x 3.5 x 3.7 inch
$4,263
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!