Monochrome Multitudes

A vividly illustrated volume tracing the monochrome as a fundamental yet expansive strategy in twentieth- and twenty-first-century art.

Exploring a fantastic range of monochromatic artworks, Monochrome Multitudes upends traditional accounts of abstraction, revisits modernist ideas, and reveals the creative possibilities and global resonance of a seemingly reductive art form.

Bringing together examples spanning five continents, the book considers how artists such as El Anatsui, Mark Bradford, Lygia Clark, Lucio Fontana, Ellsworth Kelly, Yayoi Kusama, Kasimir Malevich, Gerhard Richter, Betye Saar, Amanda Williams, Haegue Yang, as well as little-known early cartoonists have experimented with monochrome compositions. Scholars of art history, film, music, law, disability studies, astrophysics, neurobiology, mathematics, and more reflect on monochrome artworks that build on foundational components of modernism. Together, they illuminate often overlooked cultural, political, racial, and gendered meanings of artworks; reveal the significance of materials ranging from fiber, wall paint, and videotape, to footballs, pantyhose, and candy; and engage North American art in a global dialog extending into Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Artworks are presented in monochromatic groupings—yellow, blue, white, red, gray, and black—and thematic sections trace connections across topics such as the body, the environment, urban space, sound, and media.