These artists worked with crude, experimental styles that veered close to abstraction an ethos echoed in the anarchic, rebellious, and purposefully ‘bad’ imagery of German conceptual painters Albert Oehlen and Martin Kippeberger. The Neo-Expressionists of the 1980s, including Julian Schnabel and Georg Baselitz, made messy figurative painting trendy again. Pop Art and Photorealism of the 1970s brought a new form of figuration to the table that was as slick and polished as a freshly printed photograph, from David Hockney’s stylized portraits to Chuck Close’s startlingly lifelike motifs. If figurative painting dominated much of early art history, by the early 20 th century, the genre had become a symbol of stale tradition, one to be rebelled against with progressive styles of avant-garde abstraction. Let’s take a brief look at the historical developments that paved the way for today’s figurative painting before delving into some of the most striking examples of recent years.Ī Brief History of Figurative Painting Mr and Mrs Clarke and Percy by David Hockney, 1970-1971, via Tate Gallery, London Another reflects contemporary identity, with many artists exploring their mixed-race heritages or issues surrounding black culture and racism. One such theme is the playful, neo-pop approach to bright color and flat pattern. Styles, approaches, and imagery are hugely varied, but several common themes have emerged that suggest this is a real contemporary art movement on the rise. These have acid-bright colors, mashed-up imagery, and crude slashes of paint, proving there is still so much mileage to be explored in this arena. We all know figurative painting has been a feature of art history for centuries, but the contemporary art painting styles we see emerging today are anything but traditional.
Figurative painting – art featuring people and stories – has seen an unprecedented rise in the past decade, with the style dominating art market trends and museum displays worldwide.
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