Monochromatic painting has played a significant role in modern and contemporary Western visual art, originating with the early 20th-century European avant-gardes. Artists have explored the non-representational potential of a single color, investigating shifts in value, diversity of texture, and formal nuances as a means of emotional expression, visual investigation into the inherent properties of painting, as well as a starting point for conceptual works. Ranging from geometric abstraction in a variety of mediums to non-representational gestural painting, monochromatic works continue to be an important influence in contemporary art.
Lenore "Lee" Krasner was an American abstract expressionist painter, with a strong speciality in collage. She was married to Jackson Pollock. Although there was much cross-pollination between their two styles, the relationship somewhat overshadowed her contribution for some time. Krasner's training, influenced by George Bridgman and Hans Hofmann, was the more formalized, especially in the depiction of human anatomy, and this enriched Pollock's more intuitive and unstructured output.
Glenn Ligon is an American conceptual artist whose work explores race, language, desire, sexuality, and identity. Based in New York City, Ligon's work often draws on 20th century literature and speech of 20th century cultural figures such as James Baldwin, Zora Neale Hurston, Gertrude Stein, Jean Genet, and Richard Pryor. He is noted as one of the originators of the term Post-Blackness.
Ellsworth Kelly was an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker associated with hard-edge painting, Color Field painting and minimalism. His works demonstrate unassuming techniques emphasizing line, color and form, similar to the work of John McLaughlin and Kenneth Noland. Kelly often employed bright colors. He lived and worked in Spencertown, New York.
Arthur Bowen Davies was an avant-garde American artist and influential advocate of modern art in the United States c. 1910–1928.
Mark Grotjahn is an American painter best known for abstract work and bold geometric paintings. Grotjahn lives and works in Los Angeles.
Mino Argento is an Italian painter, mainly depicting abstract themes on canvas and paper.
Ellen Gallagher is an American artist. Her work has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions and is held in the permanent collections of many major museums. Her media include painting, works on paper, film and video. Some of her pieces refer to issues of race, and may combine formality with racial stereotypes and depict "ordering principles" society imposes.
Untitled is a 1999 painting by Ellen Gallagher. It is in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois in the United States.
Teeth Tracks is a 1996 painting by Ellen Gallagher. It is in the collection of The Broad in Los Angeles in the United States.
Untitled is a painting by Ellen Gallagher. It is in the collection of the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, Massachusetts in the United States.
Tally is a 1994 painting by Ellen Gallagher. It is in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in Boston, Massachusetts in the United States.
Untitled is a 1998 painting by Ellen Gallagher. It is in the collection of the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh.
Host is a 1996 painting by Ellen Gallagher. It is in the collection of the Seattle Art Museum in Seattle, Washington in the United States.
Afro Mountain is a painting by Ellen Gallagher. It is in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, New York in the United States.
Paper Cup is a painting by Ellen Gallagher. It is in the collection of the Tate Modern in London, England in the United Kingdom.
Delirious Hem is a 1995 painting by Ellen Gallagher. It is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, New York in the United States.
Ernesto Deira was an Argentine artist associated with the Nueva Figuración movement in Latin America. Together they called for a return to figurative art, rejecting both abstraction and traditional forms of representation. Deira's own style was highly expressive, linear, and often grotesque. Deira went to the Universidad of Bueno Aires and became a lawyer, but later turned to art. He studied with Leopoldo Torres Agüero and Leopoldo Presas in the 1950s. Then, in 1961, he joined Jorge de la Vega, Rómulo Macció and Luis Felipe Noé in an exhibition entitled "Otra Figuración". After the exhibition, they formed a group of the same name, which shared studio space and exhibited together until 1966. He later moved to Paris, where he died in 1986.
In This Case is a painting created by American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat in 1983. The artwork, which depicts a skull, is among the most expensive paintings ever purchased. In May 2021, it sold for $93.1 million at Christie's New York, the second highest auction record by Basquiat.
