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Emerald Coast
Gagik Ghazanchyan
Painting - 80 x 85 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 33.5 x 0.8 inch
$3,958 $3,364
Glitch #05. From the series Glitch
Yongwon Noh
Design - 10.9 x 13 x 13 cm Design - 4.3 x 5.1 x 5.1 inch
$1,000
Queue de Baleine - Sculpture Raku animal marin
Naïg Oulhen dite AbeRaku
Sculpture - 42 x 45 x 26 cm Sculpture - 16.5 x 17.7 x 10.2 inch
$1,385
I'll Be Back Soon
Claudia Chang
Painting - 72.5 x 60.5 x 3 cm Painting - 28.5 x 23.8 x 1.2 inch
$3,393
Fragment Carbone (6)
Christophe Ruiz
Painting - 60 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 23.6 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
$1,018
My Shadow A Reflection of Me 2
Agbalaya Abdulahi Opeyemi
Painting - 121.9 x 91.4 x 2.5 cm Painting - 48 x 36 x 1 inch
$2,850
Magnolia branch
Evgeny Chernyakovsky
Painting - 90 x 70 x 2 cm Painting - 35.4 x 27.6 x 0.8 inch
$2,000
Grey frame - Dandelion aura
Alvaro Petritoli
Painting - 27 x 24 x 3 cm Painting - 10.6 x 9.4 x 1.2 inch
$718
Artemisia
Marie Julou (Tina McCallan)
Painting - 60.5 x 50 x 2 cm Painting - 23.8 x 19.7 x 0.8 inch
$1,131
USA. Nevada and California. The Misfits, a film by John HUSTON. 1960 VI
Eve Arnold
Photography - 40.6 x 30.5 x 5.1 cm Photography - 16 x 12 x 2 inch
$2,350
USA. Nevada. Reno. Marilyn Monroe on the set of The Misfits by John HUSTON
Eve Arnold
Photography - 40.6 x 30.5 x 5.1 cm Photography - 16 x 12 x 2 inch
$2,350
USA. Nevada. US actress Marilyn Monroe on the set of The Misfits by John HUSTON.
Eve Arnold
Photography - 40.6 x 30.5 x 5.1 cm Photography - 16 x 12 x 2 inch
$2,350
UAE. Dubai. Behind the Veil.
Eve Arnold
Photography - 40.6 x 30.5 x 5.1 cm Photography - 16 x 12 x 2 inch
$2,350
Marilyn MONROE on the set of The Misfits - USA, Nevada, Reno
Eve Arnold
Photography - 40.6 x 30.5 x 5.1 cm Photography - 16 x 12 x 2 inch
$2,350
Rhythmogramm Triennale
Heinrich Heidersberger
Photography - 40 x 30 x 0.1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 11.8 x 0 inch
$12,440
Variations cinétiques 1
Piero Cipolat
Painting - 50 x 50 x 4 cm Painting - 19.7 x 19.7 x 1.6 inch
$1,323
Étude de la sculpture "Nzuri"
Aude Herlédan
Fine Art Drawings - 50 x 40 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 19.7 x 15.7 x 0.1 inch
$6,785
Ikarian landscape (Greek Island)
Konstantinos Tschas
Painting - 40 x 53 x 3 cm Painting - 15.7 x 20.9 x 1.2 inch
$7,294
Will Ferrell (II) - Los Angeles, CA 2007
Michael Grecco
Photography - 50.8 x 40.6 x 5.1 cm Photography - 20 x 16 x 2 inch
$3,000
La Fille au Coq ou Belarus
Svetlana Maksimenko
Painting - 80 x 60 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 inch
$2,799
Panthère résine blanche 110 cm
Richard Orlinski
Sculpture - 55 x 110 x 22 cm Sculpture - 21.7 x 43.3 x 8.7 inch
$22,052
Human preservation (5)
Julien Delagrange
Fine Art Drawings - 40 x 30 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 15.7 x 11.8 x 0 inch
$2,036
The shell (after marcel broodthaers) forbidden collage (11)
Julien Delagrange
Painting - 40 x 30 x 0.1 cm Painting - 15.7 x 11.8 x 0 inch
$2,036
Lingering in mid air
Alvaro Petritoli
Painting - 56 x 76 x 3 cm Painting - 22 x 29.9 x 1.2 inch
$1,651
Filtered amber light
Alvaro Petritoli
Painting - 83 x 61 x 3 cm Painting - 32.7 x 24 x 1.2 inch
$1,979
Seven mists descending
Alvaro Petritoli
Painting - 76 x 56 x 3 cm Painting - 29.9 x 22 x 1.2 inch
$1,979
Moon rising Midsummer
Alvaro Petritoli
Painting - 78 x 67 x 3 cm Painting - 30.7 x 26.4 x 1.2 inch
$1,979
Vanité (crâne aux paillons)
Philippe Pasqua
Sculpture - 25 x 25 x 20 cm Sculpture - 9.8 x 9.8 x 7.9 inch
$28,272
Tuba Tree. Tuba Tree Collection
Tuba Onder Demircioglu
Sculpture - 37 x 29 x 29 cm Sculpture - 14.6 x 11.4 x 11.4 inch
$7,407
Surrounded by Friends
Gaëtan de Séguin
Painting - 90 x 130 x 3 cm Painting - 35.4 x 51.2 x 1.2 inch
$3,506
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!