"stark backdrop" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it to refer to a setting that is plainly, rather than ornamentally, decorated. For example, you could say, "The stark backdrop of the stage highlighted the complex choreography of the performance."
Set against the stark backdrop of Nevada, these stories tap into rich veins of brutality and tenderness.
But given the stark backdrop of shrinking fees and mounting layoffs, running up such a bill was brazen, they said.
Against the stark backdrop of the Australian outback however, we see that the film's protagonists have changed little along the way.
But it is the first lady's wardrobe that is at the heart of this film: the pink Chanel tweed spattered with blood; the black widow's veil against the stark backdrop of a White House.
These officials note that the transit union is the first to go to the bargaining table in a new wave of negotiations, which are taking place against a stark backdrop of large deficits.
"Snorri is the Homer of the North," says Brown in this wonderfully evocative biography, rich with Norse myths, told against the stark backdrop of Iceland in the middle ages.
I need a really stark, barren backdrop so obviously I need to go to Lanzarote (laughs).
Photographed from above against a stark, barren backdrop, their branches conjure up the frightening specter of human arms waving for help.
Its maze of concrete and stark white walls makes for the perfect backdrop for the works of artists, such as Olafur Eliasson, Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas and Wolfgang Tillmans.
A stark figure strode across its windswept hilltop, his black frock coat flapping in the breeze as he descended a winding cliff-side staircase, incongruous against the bleak backdrop.
With its stark white backdrop, New Mexico's White Sands boasts its own enchanting glow.
