Make Background of UIView a Gradient Without Sub Classing

You can use +[UIColor colorWithPatternImage:] to produce a patterned background. Example (bring your own CGGradient):

// Allocate color space
CGColorSpaceRef colorSpace = CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceRGB();
// Allocate bitmap context
CGContextRef bitmapContext = CGBitmapContextCreate(NULL, 320, 480, 8, 4 * 320, colorSpace, kCGImageAlphaNoneSkipFirst);
//allocate myGradient
CGFloat locationList[]  = {0.0f, 1.0f};
CGFloat colorList[]     = {0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f};
CGGradientRef myGradient   = CGGradientCreateWithColorComponents(colorSpace, colorList, locationList, 2);
// Draw Gradient Here
CGContextDrawLinearGradient(bitmapContext, myGradient, CGPointMake(0.0f, 0.0f), CGPointMake(320.0f, 480.0f), 0);
// Create a CGImage from context
CGImageRef cgImage = CGBitmapContextCreateImage(bitmapContext);
// Create a UIImage from CGImage
UIImage *uiImage = [UIImage imageWithCGImage:cgImage];
// Release the CGImage
CGImageRelease(cgImage);
// Release the bitmap context
CGContextRelease(bitmapContext);
// Release the color space
CGColorSpaceRelease(colorSpace);
// Create the patterned UIColor and set as background color
[targetView setBackgroundColor:[UIColor colorWithPatternImage:image]];

It will probably be simpler to just create a UIView subclass though. It will use less memory as well.

You could do:

Swift >= 4.0:

let gradient = CAGradientLayer()
gradient.frame = view.bounds
gradient.colors = [UIColor.red.cgColor, UIColor.white.cgColor]
view.layer.insertSublayer(gradient, at: 0)

Swift 3.0:

let gradient = CAGradientLayer()
gradient.frame = view.bounds
gradient.colors = [UIColor.red().cgColor, UIColor.white().cgColor]
view.layer.insertSublayer(gradient, at: 0)

Swift <= 2.3:

let gradient = CAGradientLayer()
gradient.frame = view.bounds
gradient.colors = [UIColor.redColor().CGColor, UIColor.whiteColor().CGColor]
view.layer.insertSublayer(gradient, atIndex: 0)

Objective-C:

CAGradientLayer *gradient = [CAGradientLayer layer];
gradient.frame = self.view.bounds;
gradient.colors = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:(id)[[UIColor redColor] CGColor], (id)[[UIColor whiteColor] CGColor], nil];
[self.view.layer insertSublayer:gradient atIndex:0];

Make sure to add the QuartzCore framework to your project as well (at least for Objective-C)...

#import <QuartzCore/QuartzCore.h>

I agree with rpetrich, it would be cleaner to just do the UIView subclass. For an example of how to do this, see my response in this question. If you wanted, you could create a generic gradient UIView subclass and simply place that behind the views you want to have gradient backgrounds.