diff --git a/ipykernel/kernelapp.py b/ipykernel/kernelapp.py
index 2e9edc0a6..9771c34dc 100644
--- a/ipykernel/kernelapp.py
+++ b/ipykernel/kernelapp.py
@@ -512,7 +512,7 @@ def init_gui_pylab(self):
         # but lower priority than anything else (mpl.use() for instance).
         # This only affects matplotlib >= 1.5
         if not os.environ.get('MPLBACKEND'):
-            os.environ['MPLBACKEND'] = 'module://ipykernel.pylab.backend_inline'
+            os.environ['MPLBACKEND'] = 'module://matplotlib_inline.backend_inline'
 
         # Provide a wrapper for :meth:`InteractiveShellApp.init_gui_pylab`
         # to ensure that any exception is printed straight to stderr.
diff --git a/ipykernel/pylab/backend_inline.py b/ipykernel/pylab/backend_inline.py
index 36af62936..3b53c7629 100644
--- a/ipykernel/pylab/backend_inline.py
+++ b/ipykernel/pylab/backend_inline.py
@@ -3,245 +3,13 @@
 # Copyright (c) IPython Development Team.
 # Distributed under the terms of the Modified BSD License.
 
-import matplotlib
-from matplotlib.backends.backend_agg import (
-    new_figure_manager,
-    FigureCanvasAgg,
-    new_figure_manager_given_figure,
-) # analysis: ignore
-from matplotlib import colors
-from matplotlib._pylab_helpers import Gcf
+import warnings
 
-from IPython.core.getipython import get_ipython
-from IPython.core.pylabtools import select_figure_formats
-from IPython.display import display
+from matplotlib_inline.backend_inline import * # analysis: ignore
 
-from .config import InlineBackend
 
-
-def show(close=None, block=None):
-    """Show all figures as SVG/PNG payloads sent to the IPython clients.
-
-    Parameters
-    ----------
-    close : bool, optional
-        If true, a ``plt.close('all')`` call is automatically issued after
-        sending all the figures. If this is set, the figures will entirely
-        removed from the internal list of figures.
-    block : Not used.
-        The `block` parameter is a Matplotlib experimental parameter.
-        We accept it in the function signature for compatibility with other
-        backends.
-    """
-    if close is None:
-        close = InlineBackend.instance().close_figures
-    try:
-        for figure_manager in Gcf.get_all_fig_managers():
-            display(
-                figure_manager.canvas.figure,
-                metadata=_fetch_figure_metadata(figure_manager.canvas.figure)
-            )
-    finally:
-        show._to_draw = []
-        # only call close('all') if any to close
-        # close triggers gc.collect, which can be slow
-        if close and Gcf.get_all_fig_managers():
-            matplotlib.pyplot.close('all')
-
-
-# This flag will be reset by draw_if_interactive when called
-show._draw_called = False
-# list of figures to draw when flush_figures is called
-show._to_draw = []
-
-
-def draw_if_interactive():
-    """
-    Is called after every pylab drawing command
-    """
-    # signal that the current active figure should be sent at the end of
-    # execution.  Also sets the _draw_called flag, signaling that there will be
-    # something to send.  At the end of the code execution, a separate call to
-    # flush_figures() will act upon these values
-    manager = Gcf.get_active()
-    if manager is None:
-        return
-    fig = manager.canvas.figure
-
-    # Hack: matplotlib FigureManager objects in interacive backends (at least
-    # in some of them) monkeypatch the figure object and add a .show() method
-    # to it.  This applies the same monkeypatch in order to support user code
-    # that might expect `.show()` to be part of the official API of figure
-    # objects.
-    # For further reference:
-    # https://github.com/ipython/ipython/issues/1612
-    # https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib/issues/835
-
-    if not hasattr(fig, 'show'):
-        # Queue up `fig` for display
-        fig.show = lambda *a: display(fig, metadata=_fetch_figure_metadata(fig))
-
-    # If matplotlib was manually set to non-interactive mode, this function
-    # should be a no-op (otherwise we'll generate duplicate plots, since a user
-    # who set ioff() manually expects to make separate draw/show calls).
-    if not matplotlib.is_interactive():
-        return
-
-    # ensure current figure will be drawn, and each subsequent call
-    # of draw_if_interactive() moves the active figure to ensure it is
-    # drawn last
-    try:
-        show._to_draw.remove(fig)
-    except ValueError:
-        # ensure it only appears in the draw list once
-        pass
-    # Queue up the figure for drawing in next show() call
-    show._to_draw.append(fig)
-    show._draw_called = True
-
-
-def flush_figures():
-    """Send all figures that changed
-
-    This is meant to be called automatically and will call show() if, during
-    prior code execution, there had been any calls to draw_if_interactive.
-
-    This function is meant to be used as a post_execute callback in IPython,
-    so user-caused errors are handled with showtraceback() instead of being
-    allowed to raise.  If this function is not called from within IPython,
-    then these exceptions will raise.
-    """
-    if not show._draw_called:
-        return
-
-    if InlineBackend.instance().close_figures:
-        # ignore the tracking, just draw and close all figures
-        try:
-            return show(True)
-        except Exception as e:
-            # safely show traceback if in IPython, else raise
-            ip = get_ipython()
-            if ip is None:
-                raise e
-            else:
-                ip.showtraceback()
-                return
-    try:
-        # exclude any figures that were closed:
-        active = set([fm.canvas.figure for fm in Gcf.get_all_fig_managers()])
-        for fig in [ fig for fig in show._to_draw if fig in active ]:
-            try:
-                display(fig, metadata=_fetch_figure_metadata(fig))
-            except Exception as e:
-                # safely show traceback if in IPython, else raise
-                ip = get_ipython()
-                if ip is None:
-                    raise e
-                else:
-                    ip.showtraceback()
-                    return
-    finally:
-        # clear flags for next round
-        show._to_draw = []
-        show._draw_called = False
-
-
-# Changes to matplotlib in version 1.2 requires a mpl backend to supply a default
-# figurecanvas. This is set here to a Agg canvas
-# See https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib/pull/1125
-FigureCanvas = FigureCanvasAgg
-
-
-def configure_inline_support(shell, backend):
-    """Configure an IPython shell object for matplotlib use.
-
-    Parameters
-    ----------
-    shell : InteractiveShell instance
-    backend : matplotlib backend
-    """
-    # If using our svg payload backend, register the post-execution
-    # function that will pick up the results for display.  This can only be
-    # done with access to the real shell object.
-
-    cfg = InlineBackend.instance(parent=shell)
-    cfg.shell = shell
-    if cfg not in shell.configurables:
-        shell.configurables.append(cfg)
-
-    if backend == 'module://ipykernel.pylab.backend_inline':
-        shell.events.register('post_execute', flush_figures)
-
-        # Save rcParams that will be overwrittern
-        shell._saved_rcParams = {}
-        for k in cfg.rc:
-            shell._saved_rcParams[k] = matplotlib.rcParams[k]
-        # load inline_rc
-        matplotlib.rcParams.update(cfg.rc)
-        new_backend_name = "inline"
-    else:
-        try:
-            shell.events.unregister('post_execute', flush_figures)
-        except ValueError:
-            pass
-        if hasattr(shell, '_saved_rcParams'):
-            matplotlib.rcParams.update(shell._saved_rcParams)
-            del shell._saved_rcParams
-        new_backend_name = "other"
-
-    # only enable the formats once -> don't change the enabled formats (which the user may
-    # has changed) when getting another "%matplotlib inline" call.
-    # See https://github.com/ipython/ipykernel/issues/29
-    cur_backend = getattr(configure_inline_support, "current_backend", "unset")
-    if new_backend_name != cur_backend:
-        # Setup the default figure format
-        select_figure_formats(shell, cfg.figure_formats, **cfg.print_figure_kwargs)
-        configure_inline_support.current_backend = new_backend_name
-
-
-def _enable_matplotlib_integration():
-    """Enable extra IPython matplotlib integration when we are loaded as the matplotlib backend."""
-    from matplotlib import get_backend
-    ip = get_ipython()
-    backend = get_backend()
-    if ip and backend == 'module://%s' % __name__:
-        from IPython.core.pylabtools import activate_matplotlib
-        try:
-            activate_matplotlib(backend)
-            configure_inline_support(ip, backend)
-        except (ImportError, AttributeError):
-            # bugs may cause a circular import on Python 2
-            def configure_once(*args):
-                activate_matplotlib(backend)
-                configure_inline_support(ip, backend)
-                ip.events.unregister('post_run_cell', configure_once)
-            ip.events.register('post_run_cell', configure_once)
-
-_enable_matplotlib_integration()
-
-def _fetch_figure_metadata(fig):
-    """Get some metadata to help with displaying a figure."""
-    # determine if a background is needed for legibility
-    if _is_transparent(fig.get_facecolor()):
-        # the background is transparent
-        ticksLight = _is_light([label.get_color()
-                                for axes in fig.axes
-                                for axis in (axes.xaxis, axes.yaxis)
-                                for label in axis.get_ticklabels()])
-        if ticksLight.size and (ticksLight == ticksLight[0]).all():
-            # there are one or more tick labels, all with the same lightness
-            return {'needs_background': 'dark' if ticksLight[0] else 'light'}
-
-    return None
-
-def _is_light(color):
-    """Determines if a color (or each of a sequence of colors) is light (as
-    opposed to dark). Based on ITU BT.601 luminance formula (see
-    https://stackoverflow.com/a/596241)."""
-    rgbaArr = colors.to_rgba_array(color)
-    return rgbaArr[:,:3].dot((.299, .587, .114)) > .5
-
-def _is_transparent(color):
-    """Determine transparency from alpha."""
-    rgba = colors.to_rgba(color)
-    return rgba[3] < .5
+warnings.warn(
+    "`ipykernel.pylab.backend_inline` is deprecated, directly "
+    "use `matplotlib_inline.backend_inline`",
+    DeprecationWarning
+)
diff --git a/ipykernel/pylab/config.py b/ipykernel/pylab/config.py
index 249389fab..7846cb89e 100644
--- a/ipykernel/pylab/config.py
+++ b/ipykernel/pylab/config.py
@@ -2,109 +2,14 @@
 
 This module does not import anything from matplotlib.
 """
-#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-#       Copyright (C) 2011 The IPython Development Team
-#
-#  Distributed under the terms of the BSD License.  The full license is in
-#  the file COPYING, distributed as part of this software.
-#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
-#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-# Imports
-#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+import warnings
 
-from traitlets.config.configurable import SingletonConfigurable
-from traitlets import (
-    Dict, Instance, Set, Bool, TraitError, Unicode
-)
-
-#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-# Configurable for inline backend options
-#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-def pil_available():
-    """Test if PIL/Pillow is available"""
-    out = False
-    try:
-        from PIL import Image
-        out = True
-    except:
-        pass
-    return out
-
-# inherit from InlineBackendConfig for deprecation purposes
-class InlineBackendConfig(SingletonConfigurable):
-    pass
-
-class InlineBackend(InlineBackendConfig):
-    """An object to store configuration of the inline backend."""
-
-    # The typical default figure size is too large for inline use,
-    # so we shrink the figure size to 6x4, and tweak fonts to
-    # make that fit.
-    rc = Dict({'figure.figsize': (6.0,4.0),
-        # play nicely with white background in the Qt and notebook frontend
-        'figure.facecolor': (1,1,1,0),
-        'figure.edgecolor': (1,1,1,0),
-        # 12pt labels get cutoff on 6x4 logplots, so use 10pt.
-        'font.size': 10,
-        # 72 dpi matches SVG/qtconsole
-        # this only affects PNG export, as SVG has no dpi setting
-        'figure.dpi': 72,
-        # 10pt still needs a little more room on the xlabel:
-        'figure.subplot.bottom' : .125
-        },
-        help="""Subset of matplotlib rcParams that should be different for the
-        inline backend."""
-    ).tag(config=True)
-
-    figure_formats = Set({'png'},
-                          help="""A set of figure formats to enable: 'png',
-                          'retina', 'jpeg', 'svg', 'pdf'.""").tag(config=True)
-
-    def _update_figure_formatters(self):
-        if self.shell is not None:
-            from IPython.core.pylabtools import select_figure_formats
-            select_figure_formats(self.shell, self.figure_formats, **self.print_figure_kwargs)
+from matplotlib_inline.config import * # analysis: ignore
 
-    def _figure_formats_changed(self, name, old, new):
-        if 'jpg' in new or 'jpeg' in new:
-            if not pil_available():
-                raise TraitError("Requires PIL/Pillow for JPG figures")
-        self._update_figure_formatters()
-
-    figure_format = Unicode(help="""The figure format to enable (deprecated
-                                         use `figure_formats` instead)""").tag(config=True)
-
-    def _figure_format_changed(self, name, old, new):
-        if new:
-            self.figure_formats = {new}
-
-    print_figure_kwargs = Dict({'bbox_inches' : 'tight'},
-        help="""Extra kwargs to be passed to fig.canvas.print_figure.
-
-        Logical examples include: bbox_inches, quality (for jpeg figures), etc.
-        """
-    ).tag(config=True)
-    _print_figure_kwargs_changed = _update_figure_formatters
-
-    close_figures = Bool(True,
-        help="""Close all figures at the end of each cell.
-
-        When True, ensures that each cell starts with no active figures, but it
-        also means that one must keep track of references in order to edit or
-        redraw figures in subsequent cells. This mode is ideal for the notebook,
-        where residual plots from other cells might be surprising.
-
-        When False, one must call figure() to create new figures. This means
-        that gcf() and getfigs() can reference figures created in other cells,
-        and the active figure can continue to be edited with pylab/pyplot
-        methods that reference the current active figure. This mode facilitates
-        iterative editing of figures, and behaves most consistently with
-        other matplotlib backends, but figure barriers between cells must
-        be explicit.
-        """).tag(config=True)
-    
-    shell = Instance('IPython.core.interactiveshell.InteractiveShellABC',
-                     allow_none=True)
 
+warnings.warn(
+    "`ipykernel.pylab.config` is deprecated, directly "
+    "use `matplotlib_inline.config`",
+    DeprecationWarning
+)
diff --git a/ipykernel/zmqshell.py b/ipykernel/zmqshell.py
index 14b6feaed..f41bcfb70 100644
--- a/ipykernel/zmqshell.py
+++ b/ipykernel/zmqshell.py
@@ -621,15 +621,6 @@ def init_magics(self):
         self.register_magics(KernelMagics)
         self.magics_manager.register_alias('ed', 'edit')
 
-    def enable_matplotlib(self, gui=None):
-        gui, backend = super(ZMQInteractiveShell, self).enable_matplotlib(gui)
-
-        from ipykernel.pylab.backend_inline import configure_inline_support
-
-        configure_inline_support(self, backend)
-
-        return gui, backend
-
     def init_virtualenv(self):
         # Overridden not to do virtualenv detection, because it's probably
         # not appropriate in a kernel. To use a kernel in a virtualenv, install
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index efb25c035..b84d58bf1 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -76,10 +76,11 @@ def run(self):
     install_requires=[
         'importlib-metadata<4;python_version<"3.8.0"',
         'debugpy>=1.0.0',
-        'ipython>=7.21.0',
+        'ipython>=7.23.0',
         'traitlets>=4.1.0',
         'jupyter_client',
         'tornado>=4.2',
+        'matplotlib-inline>=0.1.0,<0.2.0'
         'appnope;platform_system=="Darwin"',
     ],
     extras_require={