The monochrome a single color of paint applied over the entirety of a canvas remains one of the most contentious modernist artistic inventions. But while the manufacture of these pictures of nothing was ostensibly straightforward, their subsequent theorization has been anything but. The monochrome is commonly associated with early twentieth century avant-garde painters such as Kazimir Malevich who pioneered the form with his Black Square in 1915 and, later, Abstract Expressionists such as Mark Rothko. But monochrome art holds equal attraction for artists today. More than a history, this book...

Contemporary art is often preoccupied with time, or acts in which the past is recovered. Through specific case studies of artists who strategically work with historical moments, this book examines how art from the last two decades has sought to mobilize these particular histories, and to what effect, against the backdrop of Modernism. Drawing on the art theory of Rosalind Krauss and the philosophies of Paul Ricoeur, Gerhard Richter, and Pierre Nora, Retroactivity in the Work of Contemporary Art interprets those works that foreground some aspect of retroactivity - whether re-enacting,...