figuration

noun

fig·​u·​ra·​tion ˌfi-g(y)ə-ˈrā-shən 

1

: form, outline

2

: the act or process of creating or providing a figure

3

: an act or instance of representation in figures and shapes

cubism was explained as a synthesis of colored figurations of objects

—Janet Flanner

4

: ornamentation of a musical passage by using decorative and usually repetitive figures

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

For the last decade or so, things have been very focused on younger artists and emerging art and figuration. —Degen Pener, The Hollywood Reporter, 16 Feb. 2023

His crib sheet has come in for its fair share of tweaking and critiquing down the decades, but that sense of the Cubist function—input figuration, output abstraction—still holds sway. —Susan Tallman, The New York Review of Books, 29 Dec. 2022

Beyond the Veil of the Mythical Super Woman, the exhibition’s power lies consistently in portraiture and figuration. —Dallas News, 6 May 2022

The self became a glorious figuration. —Jason Parham, Los Angeles Times, 16 Sep. 2021

The totemic figure fluidly blends abstraction and figuration, guiding our gaze to the center of the canvas and leading us into Móyòsóré Martins’ complex narrative. —Natasha Gural, Forbes, 7 Mar. 2023

Avery had studied with AbEx luminaries like Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman, but rejected abstraction for minimal figuration and landscape. —Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 1 Dec. 2022

For three decades, Brown has steeped herself in the canon of Western painting (Rubens, Picasso, de Kooning), while also pushing her medium forward, in gestural canvases of ruthless beauty which hover between abstraction and figuration. —Andrea K. Scott, The New Yorker, 3 Mar. 2023

It’s not possible because this is a response to thousands years of white figuration, and there will be other movements that derive from that. —Stephanie Sporn, Harper's BAZAAR, 8 Feb. 2023

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Word History

Etymology

Middle English figuracioun, borrowed from Latin figūrātiōn-, figūrātiō "process of forming, shape, representation," from figūrāre "to shape, make a likeness of, represent" + -tiōn-, -tiō, suffix of verbal action — more at figure entry 2

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1