White
Save your search and find it in your favorites
Saved search
Your search is accessible from the favorites tab > My favorite searches
Unsaved search
A problem occurred
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
$649
L’ébouriffé ours - série ours polaire
André-Marc Serrano
Painting - 50 x 50 x 4 cm Painting - 19.7 x 19.7 x 1.6 inch
$677
Dans la gueule de l'ours - série ours polaire
André-Marc Serrano
Painting - 50 x 50 x 4 cm Painting - 19.7 x 19.7 x 1.6 inch
$677
Dark Materials II
James Sparshatt
Photography - 67 x 100 x 2 cm Photography - 26.4 x 39.4 x 0.8 inch
$2,252
Michelin China White
Li Lihong
Sculpture - 28.5 x 27 x 24 cm Sculpture - 11.2 x 10.6 x 9.4 inch
$2,775
Retiro in May
Mihaela Ivanova
Photography - 50 x 50 x 0.2 cm Photography - 19.7 x 19.7 x 0.1 inch
$588
Pigeon monument
Mihaela Ivanova
Photography - 50 x 50 x 0.2 cm Photography - 19.7 x 19.7 x 0.1 inch
$610
Invención del eterno feminino
Yamandú Canosa
Fine Art Drawings - 49 x 65 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 19.3 x 25.6 x 0.4 inch
$1,998
S/T II
Yamandú Canosa
Fine Art Drawings - 49 x 65 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 19.3 x 25.6 x 0.4 inch
$1,998
Appareil photo blanc
Les Frères Guinet
Sculpture - 9 x 15 x 10 cm Sculpture - 3.5 x 5.9 x 3.9 inch
$1,776
Everything will be okay
Mihaela Ivanova
Photography - 50 x 50 cm Photography - 19.7 x 19.7 inch
$755
Torrent62_0798
Yasuo Kiyonaga
Photography - 91 x 116.7 x 5 cm Photography - 35.8 x 45.9 x 2 inch
$2,775
Torrent46_0749-2
Yasuo Kiyonaga
Photography - 60.6 x 121.2 x 5 cm Photography - 23.9 x 47.7 x 2 inch
$2,442
Déesse lune
Isabelle Schenckbecher-Quint
Painting - 100 x 50 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 19.7 x 0.8 inch
$1,332
Yuki the young yak (White)
Mark Ryden
Sculpture - 43.2 x 30.5 x 25.4 cm Sculpture - 17 x 12 x 10 inch
$1,998
Gentlemen prefer blondes
Patricia Gadisseur
Painting - 100 x 120 x 2.5 cm Painting - 39.4 x 47.2 x 1 inch
$1,221
Temporary Shelter
Teona Yamanidze
Painting - 50 x 50 x 3 cm Painting - 19.7 x 19.7 x 1.2 inch
$3,108
Minotaure aux tétines
Yohan Storti
Fine Art Drawings - 35 x 25 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 13.8 x 9.8 x 0 inch
$466
Triptychon
Agnes von Rogister
Fine Art Drawings - 70 x 50 x 0.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0.2 inch
$2,231
La part des Anges - the Angels' share
Bze Bzeland
Painting - 42 x 29.7 cm Painting - 16.5 x 11.7 inch
$277
Endless Solitude
Valeria De Santis
Painting - 180 x 140 x 3 cm Painting - 70.9 x 55.1 x 1.2 inch
$4,629
Midnight love
Valeria De Santis
Painting - 150 x 100 x 3 cm Painting - 59.1 x 39.4 x 1.2 inch
$4,096
Lewis Carroll - Die jagd nach dem snark
Max Ernst
Print - 33 x 25 x 0.1 cm Print - 13 x 9.8 x 0 inch
$3,108
No title (Waiting room)
Anna Wardega
Fine Art Drawings - 25 x 35 cm Fine Art Drawings - 9.8 x 13.8 inch
$277
Cinematography inspired session #24
Grzegorz Sikorski
Photography - 60 x 45 x 0.1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 17.7 x 0 inch
$211
Cinematography inspired session #25
Grzegorz Sikorski
Photography - 60 x 45 x 0.1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 17.7 x 0 inch
$211
Cinematography inspired session #26
Grzegorz Sikorski
Photography - 60 x 45 x 0.1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 17.7 x 0 inch
$211
Matador III
Grzegorz Sikorski
Photography - 60 x 45 x 0.1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 17.7 x 0 inch
$211
El Color Grana IV
Grzegorz Sikorski
Photography - 35 x 60 x 0.1 cm Photography - 13.8 x 23.6 x 0 inch
$211
Aziz, blanc et vert
Baptiste Laurent
Sculpture - 20 x 15 x 15 cm Sculpture - 7.9 x 5.9 x 5.9 inch
$832
Equilibre
Nell et Domingo Politi
Sculpture - 200 x 70 x 1 cm Sculpture - 78.7 x 27.6 x 0.4 inch
$5,106
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!