Figurative art

Figurative art is any form of modern art that retains distinct, recognisable references to the real world, and above all to the human figure. The term acquired particular meaning in the twentieth century as the opposite of abstract art: whereas abstraction rejects the depiction of recognisable objects, figurative art deliberately maintains a link with visible reality. Importantly, figurative does not mean simple copying of nature—it can be highly stylised, distorted or expressive, as long as figures, faces or objects remain recognisable within it. After the mid-twentieth-century dominance of abstraction there was a powerful return to figuration, represented among others by the expressive, disquieting canvases of Francis Bacon, the monumental fleshly images of Lucian Freud and the School of London, and various currents of Neo-Expressionism and new realism. The human figure remains one of the oldest and most enduring subjects of art, from prehistoric cave images to the present day. Figurative art testifies to the persistent need of artists to reflect on the human being, the body and the surrounding world, developing alongside abstraction rather than in denial of its existence.