White
Save your search and find it in your favorites
Save your search to find it quickly
Saved search
Your search is accessible from the favorites tab > My favorite searches
Unsaved search
A problem occurred
Élévation au Musée - Corée
Jean-Marc Stoeffler
Photography - 37 x 47 x 1 cm Photography - 14.6 x 18.5 x 0.4 inch
$283
Vaincre l'apensenteur du réel
Walter Sené
Painting - 92 x 73 x 2 cm Painting - 36.2 x 28.7 x 0.8 inch
$679
Noises From the Outside
Lukasz Olek
Painting - 100 x 70 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 27.6 x 0.8 inch
$2,490
White landscape in 3D
Nataliia Krykun
Painting - 120 x 180 x 4 cm Painting - 47.2 x 70.9 x 1.6 inch
$7,921
Alpilles
Agnès Tiollier
Fine Art Drawings - 50 x 70 x 0.18 cm Fine Art Drawings - 19.7 x 27.6 x 0.1 inch
$905
Intimate explosion
Michael Alan
Fine Art Drawings - 33 x 27.9 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 13 x 11 x 0.04 inch
$3,055
Desert signe LVII (SG248)
Sylvie Guyomard
Sculpture - 50 x 40 x 5 cm Sculpture - 19.7 x 15.7 x 2 inch
$441
Desert signe LV (SG246)
Sylvie Guyomard
Sculpture - 40 x 50 x 5 cm Sculpture - 15.7 x 19.7 x 2 inch
$554
Desert signe LIII (SG244)
Sylvie Guyomard
Sculpture - 50 x 40 x 5 cm Sculpture - 19.7 x 15.7 x 2 inch
$441
Right from the source
Manuela Karin Knaut
Painting - 125 x 125 x 4 cm Painting - 49.2 x 49.2 x 1.6 inch
$5,854
Village en Hiver (Vosges) - série Paysage
Marie-Thérèse Chanel
Painting - 46 x 61 x 2 cm Painting - 18.1 x 24 x 0.8 inch
$1,245
Louis Vitton n°6
Parscha Mirghawameddin
Painting - 146 x 114 x 2 cm Painting - 57.5 x 44.9 x 0.8 inch
$1,697
Pauvre Amour 2
Agathe David
Fine Art Drawings - 100 x 70 x 0.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 39.4 x 27.6 x 0.2 inch
$1,415
Close Touching God
Mattia Novello
Sculpture - 71.1 x 71.1 x 5.1 cm Sculpture - 28 x 28 x 2 inch
$8,000
Mer en hiver - série Mer
Françoise Lavenu
Painting - 60 x 73 x 2 cm Painting - 23.6 x 28.7 x 0.8 inch
$1,358
Élément jaune (PM15)
Palmi Marzaroli
Painting - 49 x 63 x 0.2 cm Painting - 19.3 x 24.8 x 0.1 inch
$2,603
Cheveux de comète
Anne-Marie Mary
Painting - 90 x 90 x 2.5 cm Painting - 35.4 x 35.4 x 1 inch
$2,806
Siestes short ancres marines
Pascal Astier
Painting - 60 x 120 x 2.5 cm Painting - 23.6 x 47.2 x 1 inch
$2,263
Divided Hercule
Dervis Akdemir
Sculpture - 50 x 30 x 25 cm Sculpture - 19.7 x 11.8 x 9.8 inch
$599 $510
Have you seen the moon tonight? 3
Laura Spring
Painting - 50.8 x 50.8 x 2 cm Painting - 20 x 20 x 0.8 inch
$600
Restaurant place des Vosges
Jeff Bayley
Painting - 80 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
$679
Mémoire du Temps 46
Anne-Marie Mary
Painting - 80 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
$2,444
Mémoire du temps n° 41 : Archéologie du temps
Anne-Marie Mary
Painting - 146 x 114 x 3.5 cm Painting - 57.5 x 44.9 x 1.4 inch
$5,647
Mémoire du temps n° 42
Anne-Marie Mary
Painting - 100 x 100 x 2.5 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1 inch
$4,051
Homer's fashion week - Large format
Kobalt
Print - 100 x 70 x 0.2 cm Print - 39.4 x 27.6 x 0.1 inch
$509
L'énigme de l'attachement Ghost Town Part I & II
Kevin-Ademola Sangosanya
Painting - 60 x 42.5 x 4 cm Painting - 23.6 x 16.7 x 1.6 inch
$2,037
Soleil d'hiver
Mathilde de Bellecombe
Painting - 100 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
$2,654
Mémoire oubliée N°12
Anne-Marie Mary
Painting - 120 x 120 x 3 cm Painting - 47.2 x 47.2 x 1.2 inch
$4,515
Little alchemical
Saverio Filioli Uranio
Painting - 21.6 x 13.6 x 0.2 cm Painting - 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.1 inch
$91
HK fragments IV
Sven Pfrommer
Photography - 100 x 100 x 3 cm Photography - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1.2 inch
$2,139
Temporary Shelter
Teona Yamanidze
Painting - 50 x 50 x 3 cm Painting - 19.7 x 19.7 x 1.2 inch
$3,169
Open Heart Restart
Seema Mathew
Painting - 55 x 80 x 0.3 cm Painting - 21.7 x 31.5 x 0.1 inch
$1,822
Spotty face beauty
Faie Davis
Photography - 40 x 30 x 0.1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 11.8 x 0 inch
$925
JR au Palais de Tokyo, 28 Août 2020, 16H12, Paris
JR
Print - 100 x 70 x 0.1 cm Print - 39.4 x 27.6 x 0 inch
$2,591
O3A-B, 2018 (Abstract painting)
Daniel Göttin
Painting - 30 x 40 x 2 cm Painting - 11.8 x 15.7 x 0.8 inch
$4,258
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!