"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? Why does a monochrome look so simple when it is so challenging to comprehend? And what is it that drives artists to create such works? In this illuminating book Simon Morley unpacks the meanings of the monochrome as it developed internationally, from the early twentieth century to the present day. In doing so he further explores questions such as how artists have understood what they make, how critics variously interpret it and how art is encountered by viewers."--book jacket.