Representation Art Vs. Non-representational Art

Art has been seen as a form of expression and communication of emotion since roughly 40,000 years ago. Britannica Online defines art as "the use of skill and imagination in the creation of aesthetic objects, environments, or experiences that can be shared with others." It can refer to painting, film, photography and sculpture. There are two types of art - representational art and non-representational art. Each of them has thoroughly different styles of artwork and can be easily distinguished.

Representational Art is the type of art that we see the most. It is the use of signs that stand in for and take the place of something else. Representational means descriptive, figurative and symbolized. Briefly, it depicts something easily recognized by most people. For example, the painting below is called Thunder Magic by Marcia Baldwin. People can generally recognize it as a horse without doubt. Although the using of colour may not be realistic, it represents an actual subject from reality.


Non-representational Art is also called Abstract Art. The aim is to take subjects from reality but present them in way that is different from the way they are viewed in our reality. Sometimes it does not even represent or depict a being, a place or a thing in a natural world. The artistic content depends on internal form rather than pictorial representation. For example, the painting below is The Persistence Of Memory by a famous artist, Salvador Dali. The most eye-catching things in the painting are the three soft melting pocket watches. According to some studies, the soft watches may be a visual depiction of the idea behind the Einstein's theory of relativity. The figure in the middle of the picture has one closed eye with several eyelashes, it is possibly suggesting the irrelevance of time during sleep. However, the perception of this picture may have somewhat difference between people.


In short, representational art can describe a physical object clearly and the expression of artists can be easily got by people. Non-representational art is abstract that the artists view the subjects in a non-traditional manner.The meaning behind the picture is not obvious and may not be perceived by all people consistently. Nevertheless, the sake of both types of art is the same - express the thoughts or emotion of artists.