Where Abstract Meets Representational

The definition of a representational artwork is that it depicts objects, figures, or scenes. An abstract work is the contrary, defined by its lack of those things.  Distinguishing the two has long been an easy task for art students and museum-goers. When confronted, however, with a predominantly abstract painting with surprise representational elements, into which category does the artwork fall? This question is becoming increasingly common as contemporary painters play with the idea of fragmented realities, people their compositions with abstracted figures represented from curious perspectives, and insert symbolic objects in their artworks.

The boundary between abstraction and representationalism has never been completely solid, with cubists like Picasso deconstructing figures to a nearly unrecognizable condition. Still, most artists considered themselves to belong to one school or the other. Today's artists are more open to blurring the boundary, experimenting with a little of each.