adjective

• 1Not figurative.

  ‘Aristotle does not rule out the possibility that metaphor may contain insights, but any truth so contained in figurative language would be additionally accessible through non-figurative language.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘But God's self-portrayal can be simultaneously literal and figurative only if literal does not mean non-figurative but real or actual.’

  1. 1.1(of an artist or work of art) abstract.
     ‘works which appeared to be nonfigurative often did in fact recall the visible world’
     More example sentences

     • ‘In the twentieth century Wassily Kandinsky is considered as the inventor of non-figurative art.’
     • ‘This is often the case with abstract or non-figurative painting.’
     • ‘Up until about 1974, Haas experimented with a range of different techniques and styles, producing, for example, non-figurative paintings and drawings reminiscent of Paul Klee or the Abstract Expressionists.’
     • ‘I also do more non-figurative art that is very abstract.’
     • ‘Liu's non-figurative paintings embody an extreme intensity which has become a trademark style of this talented painter.’