It's typically generous of him to tease us with a figurative reference; we get to tease him back, with free associations of our own.

The work is a combination of portraits and abstract paintings, some with figurative references.

Sacred cow is an idiom, a figurative reference to sacred cows in some religions.

They do not allow figurative references.

By 1988 Mr. Overstreet had reclaimed both oil paint and the figurative references he had abandoned along with it 25 five years before.

There is an attempt to make constructed Cubist sculpture that is large and architectural, but with figurative references.

A third kind of canvas combines grids with figurative references in a pointless irresolution.

The editors understood the "nudge" comment as the television critic's figurative reference to Mr. Rivera's flamboyant intervention.

When Mr. Shapiro moves away from the figurative reference, his work slackens.

His use of symbols, signs and ambiguous figurative references has always made his work less than abstract.