How to stand out from a white part...

The sealed windows, the ceiling that becomes a source of light and the white walls are proposed within a space, the characteristics of which promote exclusion from the outside world, as the art, which takes disposition and life within it, must be left free to express itself, avoiding those distractions of forniture, which only the aforementioned hermetic container, known by the name of White cube, can escape, promoting the preservation of masterpieces in a candid and bare environment, rendered in an eternal temporal dimension, immune to external changes. This is the story of some of the outcomes brought by modernism within the exhibition reality, transformed into minimalist white containers, within which works of the same color could simply be confused with the walls, although Vasily Kandisky's words make us understand how white, in its apparent "muteness," can "strike us as a great silence that seems absolute." In fact, there are multiple masterpieces that allow us to understand the evocative, symbolic, etc., power of the aforementioned hue, which is capable of standing out forcefully from the wall of the same hue, standing out sharply for its intrinsic meanings, as well as its multiple and little-known nuances. As evidence of the latter statements, I would like to bring attention to the work in white by Kazimir Severinovič Malevič, Piero Manzoni, Alberto Burri and Lucio Fontana, pointing out that if in earlier Christian art such color was mainly used in the robes of deities as well as in the small tonal patches of Impressionism, in Abstract, Conceptual and Minimalist art, on the other hand, it was experimented with in large canvases, aimed at generating content through the display of concepts expressed in various ways, such as, for example, cuts in canvases or matter derived from textiles and objects. Starting with Malevič, the example of the above statement is offered to us by his Suprematist Composition: White on White, oil on canvas of 1918 in which a white square floats lightly within a white field, a work, which, while representing "an impersonal" and out-of-real geometric abstraction, highlights the hand of the artist, whose gestures of execution seep from the texture of the painting, in the subtle chromatic variations and in the non-symmetrical geometric figure. This interpretation of the hue of purity and peace brings us to a clear explication of the master's interests in technology and the airplane, so much so that the use of white brings one back to the sky crossed by the latter means of transportation, inviting the viewer to lose himself in a transcendental and infinite dimension, the home of higher feelings as well as the cradle of a utopian world of pure form. Such feelings were later summarized by a manifesto drafted by the artist a year later, in which he declared that he had "overcome the covering of the colored sky" to swim "in the white and free abyss," in which infinity was before him. Turning to the Italian Manzoni, the Milanese artist is the creator of the series of white paintings, or rather to be understood as devoid of color, titled Achrome, which represents a clear manifesto to be understood as a neutral and essential pictorial quest, within which there is no attempt to express an existential or emotional motion, but a tendency toward the absolute, a concept that is confronted with the relative thought with which the theoretical status of the work of art is perceived. In addition, Manzoni's white allows for the realization, within the confines of the medium, of a fragment of infinity, which the viewer must strive to imagine in its absolute immensity.

BEHIND THE SCENES (2022) Painting by Valeriya Avtukhova.

COMPOSITION (2023) Painting by Claudia Amadesi.

Another Italian in "white" is Alberto Burri, a master who made concrete his interest in the aforementioned chromatics in some of his Cretti, works obtained with a mixture of different materials, which, when put to dry, were outside a spontaneous creative action, to favor the control of the artist capable of studying the chromatic and compositional outcomes. The result is a work of strong plastic value, in which the depth and thickness of the networks of slits create multiple effects of light and form, rendered within white or black monochromes. In the former, the light hue allows a clear distinction of the various fragments, while the dark color shrouds in darkness the edges of the tesserae, which, in both cases, are not meant to allude to the furrow of a wound, but to the conservative degradation in which many important oils from our past are found. In addition, the cracks in the Cretti are also evocative of the peculiarities of the landscape of the American Southwest, as in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Burri developed a fascination with the mudflats of Death Valley, a place where he found those typical splits, which he later wanted to juxtapose with a kind of allegory of the traumas of the fascist regime and industrialized warfare, events that indelibly marked his life and work, skillfully reproposed in the Cretti. Finally, we come to Lucio Fontana, author of the Manifesto Bianco, a text that used the aforementioned hue as its title in order to promote and emphasize the importance of new technologies for the arts, as well as the search for the integration of art and science. In the latter context, white is to be understood as the best representative hue of the speed of impalable progress, a malleable and light-filled "substance" capable of allowing the development of a four-dimensional art, that is, again referring to Fontana, a work closely connected to the dimensions of time and space. In conclusion, as evidence of the current popularity of white within contemporary art, I bring as an example the work of a number of Artmajeur artists, namely Vincent Sabatier (VerSus), Alina Shevchenko and Natalia Moreva (Наталья Морева).

ROBOCLUSION ONLY WHITE (2022) Sculpture by Vincent Sabatier (VerSus).

Vincent Sabatier (VerSus): Roboclusion only white

White imposes itself in our minds as the color of sculpture par excellence, an art in which it has dominated for millennia, still remaining intact in our imagination through the whiteness of marble, the metamorphic stone from which Michelangelo gave birth to one of the most iconic sculptures ever, namely the David, a masterpiece that changed its meaning shortly after its completion. In fact, few people know that the work was initially conceived as a decoration for one of the buttresses of Florence Cathedral, but that, after some problems arose with its initial location and a meeting attended by Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli, Filippino Lippi, Piero di cosimo, Il Perugino, etc., it was placed, because of its size and artistic value, near the entrance to Palazzo Vecchio, a location where a nineteenth-century reproduction of it currently stands. Returning to the discussion of the change of meaning, in addition to that of location, the David, after the expulsion of the Medici, patrons who had attributed a religious value to the work, assumed a political "function," becoming the symbol of the victory over tyranny achieved by the Florentine Republic. Briefly describing the masterpiece, the white sculpture depicts the young David, who, proud of the accomplishment of his warlike deed against the giant Goliath, has been immortalized in the completeness of his form and standing, that is, still and standing, while his gaze seems to be directed to a distant and indefinite point. To such an account I would like to juxtapose, equipping myself with an infinite imagination, Sabatier's white resin sculpture, which, through the entire definition of the body of a minifigs, is a spokesman for the values of the modern age, within which the human figure has now merged with an extremely consumerist context, which has transformed not only the features of humanity but also those of art.

WHITE SHADOWS Nº 4 (2023) Painting by Alina Shevchenko.

Alina Shevchenko: White shadows No. 4

Although flags represent the quintessential symbol of national identity, few people are aware of how Jasper Johns, an American artist born in 1930, dyed his nation's flag white, producing White Flag, a 1955 encaustic painting that was part of a series of works inspired by an American dream and stars and stripes. Despite the recurrence of this subject within the master's oeuvre, White Flag represents his first monochromatic interpretation of it, realized through the exploration of an object with a simple geometric structure but complex symbolic meaning, which was rendered through collage, aimed at distorting its flatness, while the white encaustic erases its usual coloring, transforming it into a kind of "ghost." Finally, Johns' Neo-Dada work appropriated a well-known image to empty it of its iconic characteristics, that is, turning it into an atypical familiar depiction designed to challenge the viewer's understanding of the identity question. On the other hand, a clear patriotic message is proposed by Shevchenko's White shadows No. 4, an acrylic that in the whiteness of the aforementioned chromatics re-proposes, this time, the features of Ukrainian ornaments, which are depicted in order to unite the ancient traditions with the country's present, of which the artist nostalgically recalls the white houses of the peasants, the textures of wood, clay, the colors of earth and hay, linen, the smell of the oven, etc.

CORSET 2 (2023) Painting by Natalia Moreva (Наталья Морева).

Natalia Moreva (Наталья Морева): Corset 2

In Moreva's work, white was used to construct the features of a sensual corset, a woman's corset, which, extending from the breasts to the buttocks, naturally frames the focal points of female sensuality, transforming the color of purity into that of the most erotic temptation. In fact, going backwards in the narrative of art history, oftentimes the Immaculate Virgin Mary has been depicted in white robes, just as is evident, for example, in Giambattista Tiempolo's masterpiece titled Immaculate Conception (1696-1770), an oil on canvas aimed at depicting the Madonna, who, surrounded by angels, is crowned with a crown of stars, while trampling on a serpent, the latter a symbol of her victory over the devil. The most classic emblems of the iconography of the Immaculate Conception, however, are clouds, angels, lilies and the rose. In addition, given the Easter season, it is good to highlight how white often lends luminosity to the features of the resurrecting Christ, just as can be seen in Giotto's Resurrection and Noli me tangere, a masterpiece dated around 1303, in which a double episode is depicted: the first, placed on the left of the support, depicts the empty tomb of Jesus with seated angels and sleeping guards bearing witness to the Resurrection, while the second, placed on the right, is enriched by the presence of Magdalene, a kneeling figure before the appearance of Christ triumphant over death, who, complete with a crusading banner, tells her not to touch him by uttering the phrase "Noli me tangere" (Do not touch me).