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Bambin dans les bras, Côte d’Ivoire
Louis Toffoli
Print - 76 x 56 x 0.2 cm Print - 29.9 x 22 x 0.1 inch
$448
Trois femmes sous la pluie
Frédéric Blaimont
Painting - 80 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
$3,588
Chicago sky I
Sven Pfrommer
Photography - 70 x 140 x 3 cm Photography - 27.6 x 55.1 x 1.2 inch
$2,119
Chicago art I A
Sven Pfrommer
Photography - 100 x 100 x 3 cm Photography - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1.2 inch
$1,895
Watchtower XXI
Sven Pfrommer
Photography - 100 x 100 x 4 cm Photography - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1.6 inch
$1,446
Urban mover V
Sven Pfrommer
Photography - 90 x 120 x 4 cm Photography - 35.4 x 47.2 x 1.6 inch
$1,558
Peak Mid Winter #9
Jonathan Moore
Photography - 40 x 60 x 0.1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 23.6 x 0 inch
$994
Passage piéton
Stéphane Martin
Photography - 40 x 30 x 0.04 cm Photography - 15.7 x 11.8 x 0 inch
$168
3 - La montée de Persephone
Mita Vostok
Photography - 60 x 40 x 1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 15.7 x 0.4 inch
$897
2 - Les âges de la vie - Naguère
Mita Vostok
Photography - 60 x 40 x 1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 15.7 x 0.4 inch
$897
2- Le rapt de Persephone
Mita Vostok
Photography - 60 x 40 x 1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 15.7 x 0.4 inch
$897
Couverture pliée
Andrii Kyrychenko
Sculpture - 65 x 30 x 35 cm Sculpture - 25.6 x 11.8 x 13.8 inch
$10,650
King be shaved
James Ogamba Tochukwu
Painting - 127 x 101.6 x 2.5 cm Painting - 50 x 40 x 1 inch
$2,500
Life at Jokulsarlon 01 - Jokulsarlon, Iceland
Nathan Soulez-Larivière
Photography - 80 x 120 cm Photography - 31.5 x 47.2 inch
$729
She Went to a Party in a White Dress
Karin Lowney Seed
Painting - 25.4 x 25.4 x 2.5 cm Painting - 10 x 10 x 1 inch
$350
Waiting for a friend
DB Waterman
Painting - 100 x 70 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 27.6 x 0.8 inch
$3,924
Retro Jaws Nike Sneakers
Dervis Akdemir
Sculpture - 15 x 25 x 8 cm Sculpture - 5.9 x 9.8 x 3.1 inch
$318
Don Quijote de La Mancha
Jose Manuel Merello
Fine Art Drawings - 13.5 x 21.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 5.3 x 8.5 inch
$561
Architecture II
Chiara Indelicato
Photography - 69 x 102 x 0.5 cm Photography - 27.2 x 40.2 x 0.2 inch
$1,177
Architecture II
Chiara Indelicato
Photography - 82 x 122 x 0.5 cm Photography - 32.3 x 48 x 0.2 inch
$2,018
Sin título (Un espacio en construcción)
Miquel Ponce
Painting - 42 x 29.7 x 0.1 cm Painting - 16.5 x 11.7 x 0 inch
$448
Napoleon Bonaparte was in burning Moscow. 1812
Simon Kozhin
Painting - 68 x 104 x 2 cm Painting - 26.8 x 40.9 x 0.8 inch
$21,000
Still life with plainair
Simon Kozhin
Painting - 75 x 87.5 x 2 cm Painting - 29.5 x 34.4 x 0.8 inch
$9,500
Desires 3
Esinulo Chiamaka Praise Chiamaka Praise
Painting - 121.9 x 121.9 x 2.5 cm Painting - 48 x 48 x 1 inch
$3,300
Sin título (Un espacio en construcción)
Miquel Ponce
Painting - 42 x 29.7 x 0.1 cm Painting - 16.5 x 11.7 x 0 inch
$448
Mapping the inner Journey
Selene Art
Painting - 30 x 30 x 2 cm Painting - 11.8 x 11.8 x 0.8 inch
$412
Mapping the inner journey #2
Selene Art
Painting - 30 x 30 x 2 cm Painting - 11.8 x 11.8 x 0.8 inch
$412
Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh-Ville, Hôtel Continental
Eric Benard
Photography - 40 x 40 x 0.1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 15.7 x 0 inch
$729
Vintage roller
Franck Savoye (Francky)
Painting - 60 x 25 x 2 cm Painting - 23.6 x 9.8 x 0.8 inch
$504
Outside the enclosure
Dam Domido
Painting - 104 x 175 x 0.1 cm Painting - 40.9 x 68.9 x 0 inch
$5,493 $4,395
The Space Between Us
Ties Ten Bosch
Sculpture - 175 x 125 x 4 cm Sculpture - 68.9 x 49.2 x 1.6 inch
$5,718
L'anti-chambre du départ
Pierre Gély-Fort
Photography - 30 x 45 x 0.1 cm Photography - 11.8 x 17.7 x 0 inch
$617
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!