Figurative -
describes
artwork
- particularly paintings - which are clearly derived from real
object sources, and are therefore by definition
representational.
The term is often taken to mean art which
represents the human figure, or even an animal figure, and,
though this is often the case, it is not necessarily so: Since
the arrival of abstract the term has been used to
refer to any form of modern art that retains strong references
to the real world
Painting can therefore be divided into the categories of figurative and abstract, although, strictly speaking, abstract is derived (or abstracted). However, the term is usually used as a synonym for non-representational art, i.e. art which has no derivation from figures or objects.