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!

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White

Les Noyers de l’Altenburg

Schwurhand: Frau rennt weg mit Gehirn

Made in Japan

Made in Japan

N° 1136 Covid 19 (8) Trop long ce confinement !

Untitled 126

Untitled 133

La perle bleue

Performance 1

The Endearing Sylvia

Bianca

No title (No09)

Boudoir

Only You

Woman with yellow stocking

Nude with red hair

Dittico tratto da la delicatezza delle radici che emersero

Santa Klaus 2

Sunbathing In Antibes - Limited Edition Estate Print

Sculpteur avec son modèle

Note

Pool days

Hier

Le Repos du Sculpteur, IV

Le sculpteur face à son modèle

OMG ! (R2D2)

L'envol

Santa Claus

Lady in Bathtub

Joanne

Engulfment, Nacional 7

Danseuse libre

Peintre et modèle aux cheveux longs

Peintre et sa toile avec modèle assis

Ophélia au milieu des nymphéas

Nue de femme

Passion I

Roi et Reine

Figures Mythologiques

Les Vélos. Pl. pour Initiation à la sexualité I

Modern Abstract Collage Halftone Statue Meets Earthy Vibes

Desperate Housewives (Marylin Monroe)

Race

Troux divine

Sans titre

Affinity

Le Cygne

Étude Corps Féminin 14

Nude Woman, Femme Nue, Mourlot Frères (after Pablo Picasso)

Medu'see

Anges des miroirs V

Anges des miroirs II

Lypsinka

Possibility

La baigneuse (Nana de berlin)

Surfing

Madame est servie

Le sommelier

Human Being 1564 - Purity - Un Anonyme Nu Dans Le Salon

HB1424 – Collection purity

Beauty of the gods The Aphrodite goddess statue

F0496 - The doll

F0480 - The antidepressant

Croquis 240124

Semeuse de foudre 2/8

La delicatezza delle radici che emersero (2 works)