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Bianca Caloi di Grassi
Fine Art Drawings - 71 x 97 x 3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 28 x 38.2 x 1.2 inch
$16,777
Disco volante Boston Terrier
Aperato
Painting - 42 x 60 x 3 cm Painting - 16.5 x 23.6 x 1.2 inch
$1,342
Les Waka Starz, Wakaliga, Ouganda
Frédéric Noy
Photography - 40 x 50 x 0.1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 19.7 x 0 inch
$727
Why does ice float on water?
Grzegorz Sikorski
Photography - 100 x 75 x 0.1 cm Photography - 39.4 x 29.5 x 0 inch
$280
David & Goliath
Grzegorz Sikorski
Photography - 56 x 100 x 0.1 cm Photography - 22 x 39.4 x 0 inch
$213
Pureza
Jose Manuel Merello
Fine Art Drawings - 21.5 x 13.5 x 0.01 cm Fine Art Drawings - 8.5 x 5.3 x 0 inch
$559
Girl with animals
Jose Manuel Merello
Fine Art Drawings - 21.5 x 13.5 x 0.01 cm Fine Art Drawings - 8.5 x 5.3 x 0 inch
$559
Ichimane à la fleur blanche
Christy
Painting - 41 x 31 x 2 cm Painting - 16.1 x 12.2 x 0.8 inch
$951
Iconic Gameboy Nike - Blanc et rouge - Nintendo
Harissart
Sculpture - 30 x 30 x 6 cm Sculpture - 11.8 x 11.8 x 2.4 inch
$671
Sans titre
Mathilde Anclin
Fine Art Drawings - 29.5 x 42 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.6 x 16.5 inch
$805
Floor number 9
Jean-Marie Gitard (Mr Strange)
Print - 49 x 49 x 0.1 cm Print - 19.3 x 19.3 x 0 inch
$334
Expressionist selfie (1)
Adrien Conrad
Painting - 41 x 33 x 2 cm Painting - 16.1 x 13 x 0.8 inch
$783
Expressionist selfie III
Adrien Conrad
Painting - 70 x 50 x 2 cm Painting - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0.8 inch
$1,957
Sheelagh Na Gig #2
Elizabeth Hefty-Khoury
Painting - 7.5 x 7.5 x 1 cm Painting - 3 x 3 x 0.4 inch
$325
Don't forget to look back
Juffrouw Springtouw
Painting - 41 x 31 cm Painting - 16.1 x 12.2 inch
$783
Serie Papelitos Monochrome
Sara Stewart Brown
Painting - 94 x 152 x 1 cm Painting - 37 x 59.8 x 0.4 inch
$9,306
Bottiglia e matite
Massimiliano Carisdeo
Painting - 60 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 23.6 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
$671
Winter landscape
Dagmara Skubisz
Painting - 60 x 50 x 1.7 cm Painting - 23.6 x 19.7 x 0.7 inch
$2,517
Ski to have the best excuse to apres-ski!
Grzegorz Sikorski
Photography - 40 x 60 x 0.1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 23.6 x 0 inch
$213
When in Rome do as the Romans do!
Grzegorz Sikorski
Photography - 40 x 60 x 0.1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 23.6 x 0 inch
$213
Rolex Daytona Silver Blue
Vincent Sabatier
Print - 70 x 50 x 0.1 cm Print - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0 inch
$201
Unpredictable past - Paesaggio Poetico
Daniela Pasqualini
Painting - 91.4 x 91.4 x 3.8 cm Painting - 36 x 36 x 1.5 inch
$2,500 $1,875
Still life for bird temple #8
Mark Gaskin
Painting - 53.3 x 61 x 5.1 cm Painting - 21 x 24 x 2 inch
$4,000
Les deux danseurs marins en voile lumière
Caroline Degroiselle
Painting - 100 x 50 x 4 cm Painting - 39.4 x 19.7 x 1.6 inch
$2,819
Série : Se faire passer pour Mao
Nathalie Daoust
Photography - 60 x 90 cm Photography - 23.6 x 35.4 inch
$2,796
Serenity on the Horizon
Michael Milkin
Painting - 61.5 x 91.5 x 2.5 cm Painting - 24.2 x 36 x 1 inch
$5,800
Under the Veil - black version
Elisa Bonotti
Painting - 30 x 30 x 4 cm Painting - 11.8 x 11.8 x 1.6 inch
$358
81 Futura white lips on black
Alla Grande
Sculpture - 53 x 53 x 5 cm Sculpture - 20.9 x 20.9 x 2 inch
$2,125
Les reflets bleus de l’océan... (Esprit voile)
Olivier Messas
Painting - 80 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
$1,901
Variation 59 : série de cinq tableaux à structure identique, symétrique et réversible, trouvé par hazard #5
Claude Tousignant
Painting - 121.9 x 243.8 x 5.1 cm Painting - 48 x 96 x 2 inch
$223,692
Losanges en blanc et noir
Claude Tousignant
Painting - 106.7 x 213.4 cm Painting - 42 x 84 inch
$178,954
Isshin furan. Intense concentration
Léon Kiddo
Painting - 40 x 30 x 3 cm Painting - 15.7 x 11.8 x 1.2 inch
$1,007
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!