A French term for a figurist; an artist, performer, or thinker who emphasizes figural or representational elements.
French borrowing of figurist, from figure + -iste (French agent suffix equivalent to English -ist). Common in French artistic and philosophical contexts during the 17th-19th centuries.
In French art criticism, figuristes were those who believed in representing human figures and recognizable forms, as opposed to abstract artists — it became a marker of artistic philosophy and cultural identity.
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