Color characterization of a display device commonly requires the measurement of CIE XYZ values of known samples displayed as patches on the device so that the relationship between the device space (usually RGB) and the device-independent space (XYZ) can be determined. However, it is known that the color measurements of the patches may vary with the color and luminance of the background against which they are displayed. Lack of spatial independence is one of the factors that can cause this phenomenon. This raises the question of what the nature of the background should be for an optimal characterization of a display system. It is likely that what is optimal will depend upon the intended application of the characterized display (for example, is it being used to display simple images in a psychophysical experiment or more complex images in some other setting). This research considers characterization with two background conditions (Mondrian-like colored background and Mondrian-like colored background with motion) and explores the effect of these background effects on the characterization model's parameters and on the usefulness of the characterization in various practical scenarios.