abstractfigurative

Abstractfigurative is a term used in art criticism to describe artworks that combine recognizable subject matter with abstracted form. Works categorized as abstractfigurative retain some figural or narrative cues—such as a face, figure, landscape, or object—while employing abstraction in composition, color, scale, or texture. This places them between traditional figurative art and pure abstraction.

Characteristics and methods include simplified or distorted figuration, nonnaturalistic color, flattened perspective, gestural brushwork, collage, or fragmentation of the figure. The result is often open-ended, inviting multiple readings and allowing viewers to interpret both the subject and the abstraction simultaneously.

Historical context situates abstractfigurative within 20th-century and contemporary movements that blurred boundaries between figuration and abstraction, including Expressionism, Cubism, and later Neo-Expressionism. Critics use the label to describe tendencies rather than a single, unified movement, applying it to a range of works created over several decades.

Reception of abstractfigurative varies. Some viewers value the tension between recognizability and abstraction, while others view the approach as transitional or as a marketing category. The term is descriptive rather than prescriptive, and individual works may emphasize figurative or abstract elements to differing degrees.

For further reading, see abstract art, figurative art, and figurative abstraction.