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
Bruler dans tes yeux
Laurent Anastay-Ponsolle
Painting - 40 x 40 x 3 cm Painting - 15.7 x 15.7 x 1.2 inch
$1,387
E.o.d (End of day)
Martin Johansson
Painting - 100 x 120 x 3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 47.2 x 1.2 inch
$4,218
L'amoureuse
Fabienne Bonneau (Fablues)
Painting - 29.7 x 21 x 0.01 cm Painting - 11.7 x 8.3 x 0 inch
$277
The view of Schiedam 2
Elena Sokolova
Painting - 30 x 39.9 x 1 cm Painting - 11.8 x 15.7 x 0.4 inch
$313
Les amants
Guillaume Lachapelle
Sculpture - 6.4 x 17.8 x 12.7 cm Sculpture - 2.5 x 7 x 5 inch
$3,774
La soupirante
Guillaume Lachapelle
Sculpture - 13 x 11.9 x 7.1 cm Sculpture - 5.1 x 4.7 x 2.8 inch
$2,664
Insécables (Diptych)
Guillaume Lachapelle
Sculpture - 14 x 17 x 6.1 cm Sculpture - 5.5 x 6.7 x 2.4 inch
$4,218
Odessa
Reynold Arnould
Fine Art Drawings - 18 x 27 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 7.1 x 10.6 x 0.1 inch
$499
Be My Star
Elvira Carrasco
Photography - 135 x 100 x 1 cm Photography - 53.1 x 39.4 x 0.4 inch
$4,884
Bouquet de marguerites
Patrice Marchal
Painting - 90 x 30 x 2 cm Painting - 35.4 x 11.8 x 0.8 inch
$2,275
Sleeping
Anthony Roaland
Fine Art Drawings - 46 x 64 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 18.1 x 25.2 x 0 inch
$377
Meta Color XIX
Sven Pfrommer
Photography - 70 x 140 x 2 cm Photography - 27.6 x 55.1 x 0.8 inch
$2,764
Sketch
Bernard Bécan
Fine Art Drawings - 20 x 26 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 7.9 x 10.2 x 0 inch
$222
Vies blanches/diptyque
Raphael Scorbiac
Sculpture - 235 x 160 x 30 cm Sculpture - 92.5 x 63 x 11.8 inch
$23,309
Tokyo crossing VI
Sven Pfrommer
Photography - 150 x 75 x 3 cm Photography - 59.1 x 29.5 x 1.2 inch
$3,319
Tokyo crossing IV
Sven Pfrommer
Photography - 150 x 75 x 3 cm Photography - 59.1 x 29.5 x 1.2 inch
$3,319
Skeme and Lava - N.Y.C Legends
Big Daddy
Photography - 20 x 30 x 1 cm Photography - 7.9 x 11.8 x 0.4 inch
$277
Sonic Bad - N.Y.C Legends
Big Daddy
Photography - 30 x 20 x 1 cm Photography - 11.8 x 7.9 x 0.4 inch
$277
Encrucijadas y revelaciones
Gustavo Díaz Sosa
Painting - 27 x 55 x 1.5 cm Painting - 10.6 x 21.7 x 0.6 inch
$2,331
The man who reads
Alberto Ziveri
Fine Art Drawings - 18 x 12 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 7.1 x 4.7 x 0 inch
$444
Gathering under umbrellas
Lisa Golightly
Painting - 40 x 40 x 1.5 cm Painting - 15.7 x 15.7 x 0.6 inch
$6,216
Still life
Reynold Arnould
Fine Art Drawings - 11.5 x 16 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 4.5 x 6.3 x 0.1 inch
$333
Fire not lost
Emily Redd
Fine Art Drawings - 35.6 x 53.3 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 14 x 21 x 0.1 inch
$295
Two houses
Luis Alberto Quispe
Fine Art Drawings - 20.5 x 10.5 x 0.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 8.1 x 4.1 x 0.2 inch
$333
Totora before the rainfall
Luis Alberto Quispe
Fine Art Drawings - 20 x 20 x 0.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 7.9 x 7.9 x 0.2 inch
$333
Les filles d’honneur... (En scène)
Olivier Messas
Painting - 100 x 120 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 47.2 x 0.8 inch
$3,552
Alambicco Plate for Martini & Rossi
Piero Fornasetti
Design - 23.5 x 23.5 x 4 cm Design - 9.3 x 9.3 x 1.6 inch
$388
Skyphos Plate for Martini & Rossi
Piero Fornasetti
Design - 23.5 x 23.5 x 4 cm Design - 9.3 x 9.3 x 1.6 inch
$377
Servizio Per Porto Plate for Martini & Rossi
Piero Fornasetti
Design - 23.5 x 23.5 x 93 cm Design - 9.3 x 9.3 x 36.6 inch
$388
Carro Vinario Plate for Martini & Rossi
Piero Fornasetti
Design - 23.5 x 23.5 x 4 cm Design - 9.3 x 9.3 x 1.6 inch
$400
Il Primo Tino Plate for Martini & Rossi
Piero Fornasetti
Design - 23.2 x 23.2 x 4 cm Design - 9.1 x 9.1 x 1.6 inch
$388
Porron Plate for Martini & Rossi
Piero Fornasetti
Design - 23.5 x 23.5 x 4 cm Design - 9.3 x 9.3 x 1.6 inch
$388
Rhyton Plate for Martini & Rossi
Piero Fornasetti
Design - 23.5 x 23 x 4 cm Design - 9.3 x 9.1 x 1.6 inch
$388
Trozzella Plate for Martini & Rossi
Piero Fornasetti
Design - 23.5 x 23.5 x 4 cm Design - 9.3 x 9.3 x 1.6 inch
$388
Lipstick Red variation
Marc Ferrero
Painting - 150 x 150 x 4 cm Painting - 59.1 x 59.1 x 1.6 inch
$72,148
Roudaki jouant de la harpe
Mohammad Ariyaei
Painting - 70 x 100 cm Painting - 27.6 x 39.4 inch
$3,552
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!