White
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
To live off of memories
Reinaldo Chavez
Painting - 27.5 x 22 x 0.3 cm Painting - 10.8 x 8.7 x 0.1 inch
$330
Water lily, Flower of purity
Le anh Tuan
Painting - 119.9 x 89.9 x 3 cm Painting - 47.2 x 35.4 x 1.2 inch
$3,550
Morning on the lake
Le anh Tuan
Painting - 79.8 x 119.9 x 3 cm Painting - 31.4 x 47.2 x 1.2 inch
$3,450
Disco Night
Vakhtang Khelashvili
Fine Art Drawings - 23 x 32 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 9.1 x 12.6 x 0 inch
$3,410
Symphonie… (Expression libre)
Olivier Messas
Painting - 120 x 120 x 2 cm Painting - 47.2 x 47.2 x 0.8 inch
$5,684
SOS Esquimau
Jean-Marie Gitard (Mr Strange)
Print - 49 x 49 x 0.1 cm Print - 19.3 x 19.3 x 0 inch
$340 $171
Un esquimau dans le freezer
Jean-Marie Gitard (Mr Strange)
Print - 49 x 70 x 0.1 cm Print - 19.3 x 27.6 x 0 inch
$340 $171
memories of the last winter
Elena Raceala
Photography - 200.7 x 133.4 x 0.3 cm Photography - 79 x 52.5 x 0.1 inch
$739
Sitting on a sand dune
Valentin Pacaut
Photography - 50 x 75 x 0.2 cm Photography - 19.7 x 29.5 x 0.1 inch
$568
Flying Les Paul
Benjamin Pietri
Sculpture - 137 x 70 x 9 cm Sculpture - 53.9 x 27.6 x 3.5 inch
$25,009
Golden Ratio
Cheraine Collette
Photography - 120 x 80 x 2 cm Photography - 47.2 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
$6,821
It's a tie 2 of 3
Larissa Schlick
Painting - 120 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 47.2 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
$3,410
No Strings Attached
Larissa Schlick
Painting - 100 x 100 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 0.8 inch
$4,433
Fanfare Irakienne
José Nicolas
Photography - 40 x 60 x 1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 23.6 x 0.4 inch
$1,023
Burkina 1998 Coupe d'Afrique des Nations
José Nicolas
Photography - 60 x 90 x 1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 35.4 x 0.4 inch
$1,705
Les voiliers de Saint-Tropez... (Esprit voile)
Olivier Messas
Painting - 120 x 120 x 2 cm Painting - 47.2 x 47.2 x 0.8 inch
$5,684
Les uns contre les autres... (Esprit voile)
Olivier Messas
Painting - 50 x 120 x 2 cm Painting - 19.7 x 47.2 x 0.8 inch
$2,501
50000 Reverso Iizquierdo
Rodrigo Spinel
Fine Art Drawings - 29 x 14 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.4 x 5.5 x 0.1 inch
$500
Still Life with a Broken Egg, Antwerp
Michael James O'Brien
Photography - 152.4 x 203.2 x 0.3 cm Photography - 60 x 80 x 0.1 inch
$12,000
Composition verticales
Lionel le Jeune
Photography - 45 x 60 x 0.4 cm Photography - 17.7 x 23.6 x 0.2 inch
$966
Jacques Villeret
Arnaud Baumann
Photography - 20 x 20 x 0.1 cm Photography - 7.9 x 7.9 x 0 inch
$284
Arbre Bistro 5
Bernard Lassus
Fine Art Drawings - 20 x 20 cm Fine Art Drawings - 7.9 x 7.9 inch
$796
Arbre Bistro 4
Bernard Lassus
Fine Art Drawings - 20 x 20 cm Fine Art Drawings - 7.9 x 7.9 inch
$796
Arbre Bistro 3
Bernard Lassus
Fine Art Drawings - 20 x 20 cm Fine Art Drawings - 7.9 x 7.9 inch
$796
Untitled Morocco 77
Ziad Naitaddi
Photography - 30 x 45 x 2 cm Photography - 11.8 x 17.7 x 0.8 inch
$1,250
Untitled Morocco 78
Ziad Naitaddi
Photography - 45 x 30 x 2 cm Photography - 17.7 x 11.8 x 0.8 inch
$1,250
Madame Edwarda. Paris: Georges Visat
Hans Bellmer
Print - 40 x 26 x 3 cm Print - 15.7 x 10.2 x 1.2 inch
$16,824
Dialogue 01
Matthieu Venot
Photography - 50 x 62.5 x 0.1 cm Photography - 19.7 x 24.6 x 0 inch
$1,364
Winter's Dream
Kenneth Halvorsen
Painting - 152.4 x 101.6 x 3.8 cm Painting - 60 x 40 x 1.5 inch
$5,180
Winter's Dream
Kenneth Halvorsen
Painting - 152.4 x 101.6 x 3.8 cm Painting - 60 x 40 x 1.5 inch
$4,950
Peonies on the dark background
Elena Podmarkova
Painting - 76.2 x 101.6 x 2 cm Painting - 30 x 40 x 0.8 inch
$2,140
Duet of peonies 2
Elena Podmarkova
Painting - 76.2 x 101.6 x 2 cm Painting - 30 x 40 x 0.8 inch
$2,140
Dark rainy day in Fifth Avenue
Chin H Shin
Painting - 81.3 x 61 x 2.5 cm Painting - 32 x 24 x 1 inch
$3,500
Samuraicat’s Inkan Resonance , Silver
Hiro Ando
Sculpture - 50 x 50 x 15 cm Sculpture - 19.7 x 19.7 x 5.9 inch
$5,684
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
Magic White: Two Horses
Valeria Radzievska
Painting - 91.4 x 121.9 x 2 cm Painting - 36 x 48 x 0.8 inch
$4,500
White peonies in a cold color
Elena Podmarkova
Painting - 91.4 x 91.4 x 2 cm Painting - 36 x 36 x 0.8 inch
$2,390
Hedren / Paris Match
Gragnon François
Photography - 60 x 60 x 0.1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 23.6 x 0 inch
$1,819
Parrot bliss
Rinalds Vanadzins
Painting - 89.9 x 59.9 x 1.8 cm Painting - 35.4 x 23.6 x 0.7 inch
$2,650
Terra Nova (space ship)
Robbie Cornelissen
Fine Art Drawings - 20.3 x 30.5 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 8 x 12 x 0.1 inch
$1,330
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!