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Notre-Dame de Paris
Justina Napiorkowska
Photography - 30 x 30 cm Photography - 11.8 x 11.8 inch
$277
Alice Heine (1857-1925), épouse du Prince Albert 1er de Monaco, buste en marbre blanc par Fabio Stecchi (1855-1928), 1892, Carole. Palais Princier de Monaco
Julien Spiewak
Photography - 70 x 50 x 5 cm Photography - 27.6 x 19.7 x 2 inch
$4,329
Tissage urbain
Elsa Pallier (El'Pallier)
Painting - 73 x 92 x 2 cm Painting - 28.7 x 36.2 x 0.8 inch
$1,598
I love you this much
Johnson Tsang
Sculpture - 20 x 14.5 x 13 cm Sculpture - 7.9 x 5.7 x 5.1 inch
$1,665
Tempête tropicale - Paysage abstrait
Nicole Gérard
Painting - 92 x 73 x 2 cm Painting - 36.2 x 28.7 x 0.8 inch
$1,526
Le Jardin n°1 - série Abstraction
Cira Bhang
Painting - 70 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 27.6 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
$1,188
Allées et venues en paysage moelleux n°3
Éléonore Deshayes
Painting - 100 x 100 x 3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1.2 inch
$4,440
G_43
Alina Aldea
Fine Art Drawings - 70 x 100 x 0.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 27.6 x 39.4 x 0.2 inch
$1,054
Without identity
Maurizio Gracceva
Fine Art Drawings - 103 x 72 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 40.6 x 28.3 x 0 inch
$1,665
La Mécanique des Fluides
Sozyone Gonzalez
Print - 40 x 50 x 4 cm Print - 15.7 x 19.7 x 1.6 inch
$888
You look at me sadly, Nevo 1
Nevelin Ivanov
Fine Art Drawings - 28 x 21 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11 x 8.3 x 0.1 inch
$166
Arguments for Nothing
Lena Ochkalova
Painting - 65 x 50 x 0.1 cm Painting - 25.6 x 19.7 x 0 inch
$999
Invisible touch 856
Iryna Kitaieva
Painting - 88.9 x 88.9 x 5.1 cm Painting - 35 x 35 x 2 inch
$1,716
Untitled IV (carmine)
Pinchas (Maryan) Burstein
Print - 53.1 x 62 x 0 cm Print - 20.9 x 24.4 x 0.01 inch
$2,200
Guernicouille de Pine d'Assaut (Tryptique complet)
Mad Meg
Print - 65.5 x 144 cm Print - 25.8 x 56.7 inch
$1,110
La interna contradicción
Uxue Con X
Painting - 120 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 47.2 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
$1,878
Sleipnir Mini Grund VIII 87751
Duilio Forte
Sculpture - 51 x 45 x 30 cm Sculpture - 20.1 x 17.7 x 11.8 inch
$555
Waterline (indigo) II
Heidi Carlsen-Rogers
Painting - 61 x 91.4 x 4.6 cm Painting - 24 x 36 x 1.8 inch
$2,000
Say it with a smile
Jacqueline Doyle Allison
Painting - 91.4 x 91.4 x 3.8 cm Painting - 36 x 36 x 1.5 inch
$1,495
Untitled Gap
Francisco Montoya Cázarez
Fine Art Drawings - 27.5 x 34 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 10.8 x 13.4 x 0.1 inch
$799
Head 1
Lætitia Disone
Fine Art Drawings - 23.5 x 17.5 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 9.3 x 6.9 x 0.4 inch
$999
Growing space VII
Gergana Tabakova
Fine Art Drawings - 25 x 25 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 9.8 x 9.8 x 0 inch
$555
60lb of Dust, 2kg of Sand, 32g of Ash
Sun K. Kwak
Sculpture - 91.4 x 609.6 x 5.1 cm Sculpture - 36 x 240 x 2 inch
$72,000
Un été gris-bleu - série Les Dames de la côte
Françoise Lucq
Painting - 60 x 40 x 1 cm Painting - 23.6 x 15.7 x 0.4 inch
$1,088
La frôleuse de blés
Grégory Poussier
Sculpture - 80 x 40 x 35 cm Sculpture - 31.5 x 15.7 x 13.8 inch
$15,540
Abstract composition in white
Tonino Maurizi
Sculpture - 28 x 21 x 3 cm Sculpture - 11 x 8.3 x 1.2 inch
$1,387
Resting my bones
Prisca Akua Kwaning
Painting - 115 x 75 x 3 cm Painting - 45.3 x 29.5 x 1.2 inch
$2,120
Sans nom
Michel Soubeyrand
Fine Art Drawings - 40 x 27 cm Fine Art Drawings - 15.7 x 10.6 inch
$1,387
Black & white soul II
Cecile Filipe
Painting - 44 x 34 x 2 cm Painting - 17.3 x 13.4 x 0.8 inch
$1,110
Traças 1
Patricia Lazcano Irazazábal
Sculpture - 29.5 x 42.5 x 4 cm Sculpture - 11.6 x 16.7 x 1.6 inch
$1,221
A fine balance
Bernadette Youngquist
Painting - 41 x 41 x 1 cm Painting - 16.1 x 16.1 x 0.4 inch
$1,776
Ilori 3 (Put To Bed)
Janet Adebayo
Painting - 91.4 x 91.4 x 2.5 cm Painting - 36 x 36 x 1 inch
$1,990
Two in the Pool
Carrie Graber
Fine Art Drawings - 61 x 48.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 24 x 19 inch
$1,750
Repos II - série oiseaux
Henry Ausloos
Photography - 40 x 80 x 0.1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 31.5 x 0 inch
$1,526
Free Spirit nº1
Pierre Cherix
Photography - 70 x 50 x 0.2 cm Photography - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0.1 inch
$499
Antarès - série Coque de bateaux
Sylvie Le Pape dite Khali
Painting - 70 x 50 x 1 cm Painting - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0.4 inch
$694
Abstraction urbaine #5
Guillaume Chevallard
Photography - 49 x 69 x 2.9 cm Photography - 19.3 x 27.2 x 1.1 inch
$1,332
Insta(nt)llation - Completion. 1/ 3
Eszter Poroszlai
Photography - 30 x 30 x 3 cm Photography - 11.8 x 11.8 x 1.2 inch
$1,165
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!