Monochrome, meaning single color, refers to works of art that use only one color or a combination of values of a color. Black and white photography is an example of monochrome imagery because it is composed only of black, white, and shades of gray. Prints of all types—intaglio, relief, silkscreen, or lithography—can also be considered monochrome when made from a single impression and single shade of ink. In painting, monochrome typically refers to a picture plane that is filled with a single solid color. The rise of monochrome painting is a relatively recent and extremely significant development in the history of art. In the beginning of the twentieth century, Russian Suprematist painter Kasimir Malevich created some of the first monochrome paintings. His 1918 Suprematist Composition: White on White featured a white square set at an angle within a canvas painted a very slightly different shade of white. The completely abstract painting rejected the visual vocabulary of representational painting in favor of emphasizing the flatness and materiality of the canvas.

The idea of the monochrome canvas became extremely important to the Minimalist movement of the mid-twentieth century. The artists associated with this movement were interested in removing signs of the hand of the artist from their work and reducing art to its essential elements. Fascinated by the relationship between shape and color, Ellsworth Kelly created fields of rich, uninflected color. French painter Yves Klein made many paintings in the color he eventually trademarked as International Klein Blue. By painting only in white, Robert Ryman explored the textural potential of monochrome painting. Other artists who have mined the possibilities of the monochrome in their work include Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella, Wade Guyton, Mary Martin, and Louise Nevelson.