White in Barragán’s work is never empty. A limewashed wall is a screen: it receives the blue of the sky, the green of a garden, the warmth of evening light and the moving shadows of foliage — none of which are fixed properties of the paint itself. Rough plaster texture prevents it from reading as a flat modernist white; oblique light catches its small irregularities and adds a second layer of gray or blue shadow over the base color.
White usually provides visual rest between more saturated walls, but it can also carry a composition on its own — at the Plaza del Bebedero, a monumental white plane receives shadows from the surrounding trees and changes through the day. It is therefore both neutral and active: it gives the eye rest while quietly recording everything around it.