This device may be used to expand a canvas and create an extended vista of either a landscape or religious theme (the crucifixion being one of them) and in some instances, portraiture. Additionally diptych and triptychs can either be attached to the wall or free standing, they can be used to create an intervention or enhance the pictorial space.

In modern art, the diptych is often used to create a juxtaposition of diverse elements or a clever face off between sparring parties. An example of this is an online art work which depicted Hillary Clinton on one side, Barack Obama on the other and the White House in the middle. To quote Minnesota-based artist David Bierk, who has worked with this format using references to history and referencing the works of other painters like Ingres and Titian, “By creating two sides of equal intensity, one has eliminated the pre-modern concept of central focus and created a duet of focal points. Each side (of the diptych) can stand on its own merits, but together the diptychs pose questions about history, art history, contemporary painting, pictorial space, paint as subject, frame as window and more.” Bierk, who is showing at the Nancy Hoffman Gallery, has created works as a tribute to the Great Masters, while re-contextualising their paintings within contemporary times.

In the history of art, Dutch painter Jan Vermeer is known for his diptychs and triptychs although the format of these two devices goes back all the way to Byzantine Art, where the central icon was placed in the middle and was flanked on either side by guardian angels or secondary figures.

Among the Indian painters who often use the diptych to create dialogues between two disparate images are Riyas Komu, Bose Krishanmachari and Atul Dodiya.