Representational art also tests these skills and, in addition to them, taxes the imagination and intelligence of the artist.

ECONOMIST: Come up and see my etchings

While the U.S. was struggling through the Depression and encouraging the kind of representational art tinged with social themes propagated by the Works Progress Administration, the Park Avenue cubists insisted art should exist apart from politics, in a protected sphere where individuals could assert a private vision.

FORBES: Cubists In Love

He began as an abstract painter at CalArts and evolved into representational, folkloric art about a fisherman's family during a teaching stint in Nova Scotia.

WSJ: Book Review: Bad Boy