White in painting is paradigmatic of this field of possibilities. From winter landscapes to nebulous skies, from unfolded tablecloths to glass reflections, from the pearlescence of a pearl to the incandescence of a mystic's eyes, white is a color that, without really being one, nuances (1), attenuates, veils, covers, reveals, allows other things to become visible (2).
As the year draws to a close and we come to the beginning (3), in the whirlwind of lights and colourful ornaments, let's think of the candour of vapours (4), white, so that it resonates in these days as a silence, a nothing before any beginning (5).
Clara Pagnussatt
(1) Vassily Kandinsky, Du spirituel dans l'Art et dans la peinture en particulier, 1912
(2) Robert Ryman from a 1986 interview quoted in the catalog Collection art contemporain - La collection du Centre Pompidou, 2007
(3) Gaston Miron, L'Homme rapaillé, 1970
(4) Arthur Rimbaud, Voyelles, 1871
(5) Vassily Kandinsky, op. cit. cit
Photo credits:
Philippe de Champaigne © C. Pagnussatt - Claude Monet © Musée d'Orsay - Robert Ryman © The Rose Collection
