diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/axes/_axes.py b/lib/matplotlib/axes/_axes.py
index 5369eadbdefd..7e00a1edb73b 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/axes/_axes.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/axes/_axes.py
@@ -5718,6 +5718,18 @@ def imshow(self, X, cmap=None, norm=None, *, aspect=None,
         `~matplotlib.pyplot.imshow` expects RGB images adopting the straight
         (unassociated) alpha representation.
         """
+        if not isinstance(vmax, (int, float)):
+            try:
+                vmax = vmax.to_tuple()[0]
+            except AttributeError:
+                raise AttributeError("vmax must be a scalar or a 1-element array")
+
+        if not isinstance(vmin, (int, float)):
+            try:
+                vmin = vmin.to_tuple()[0]
+            except AttributeError:
+                raise AttributeError("vmin must be a scalar or a 1-element array")
+
         if aspect is None:
             aspect = mpl.rcParams['image.aspect']
         self.set_aspect(aspect)