figurative art (From Wikipedia):
drawing by: Mohsen Irani
Figurative art, sometimes written as figurativism, describes artwork – particularly paintings and sculptures – which are clearly derived from real object sources, and are therefore by definition representational. The term figurative art 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 art the term figurative has been used to refer to any form of modern art that retains strong references to the real world.” Painting and sculpture can therefore be divided into the categories of figurative, representational and abstract, although, strictly speaking, abstract art is derived (or abstracted) from a figurative or other natural source. However, the term is sometimes used as a synonym for non-representational art and non-objective art, i.e. art which has no derivation from figures or objects.
