The monochrome – a single-colour work of art – is highly ambiguous. For some it epitomizes purity, and is art reduced to its essence. For others it is just a stunt, the emperor’s new clothes. Why are monochromes so admired, yet such an easy target of scorn? In this illuminating book Simon Morley unpacks the meanings of the monochrome as it developed internationally over the twentieth century to today. In doing so he explores more general questions such as how artists have understood what they make, how critics variously interpret it and how art is encountered by viewers.
Simon Morley is an artist and writer. He is currently Assistant Professor at Dankook University, Republic of Korea, and is the author of Writing on the Wall: Word and Image in Modern Art (2003) and Seven Keys to Modern Art (2019), and editor of The Sublime (Documents of Contemporary Art) (2010).
1 Introductions
2 Setting
3 Reception
4 Colour
5 Ground
6 Spiritual
7 Indefinable
8 Nothingness
9 Experiential
10 Zen
11 Material
12 Format
13 Sign
14 Idea
15 Allegorical
16 Expanded Field
17 East-Asia
18 Contemporary
19 Conclusion
References