Figurationen

Figurationen is the plural form of Figuration in German art discourse, referring to artworks whose subjects are recognizably depicted human or animal figures, as opposed to abstraction. The term covers a broad range of figurative practices across painting, sculpture, photography, and drawing, spanning classical representational art to contemporary approaches that experiment with form while preserving recognizable figures.

Historically, figuration has been central since antiquity and the Renaissance, but in the 20th century it entered into dialogue with abstraction. After World War II, German-speaking art saw renewed attention to the figure in movements and tendencies grouped under Figuration or Neue Figuration in the late 1960s to 1970s, and in broader international figurative painting and sculpture. Artists such as Georg Baselitz, Jörg Immendorff, and A. R. Penck used enlarged, stylized, or inverted figures to address memory, political critique, and social commentary. In later decades, figuration coexisted with conceptual and abstract tendencies, often integrating personal symbolism, grotesque or surreal elements, and critical realism.

Techniques vary widely: painting with oil or acrylic, drawing with ink or charcoal, sculpture in wood, metal, or ceramic, and installation or mixed-media works. The essential feature is the legible figure or figure-derived forms, even when distorted, allegorical, or embedded in complex compositions.

See also: Figurative art, Realism, Neue Figuration.