figure-ground

American  

[fig-yer-ground] / ˈfɪg yərˈgraʊnd /

noun

Psychology.

1. a property of perception in which there is a tendency to see parts of a visual field as solid, well-defined objects standing out against a less distinct background.

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Example Sentences

It was about being able to work with the kind of picture where the figure-ground relationship got kind of mixed up, but in relation to the unfolding of time, so that the recurring background of the images would be this sort of shifting and slowly changing space of the studio.

From Los Angeles Times

There’s an allover quality to most of them; only rarely does he suggest a figure-ground relationship.

From New York Times

They folded and stapled the sliced canvas edges over a cheap new wooden stretcher, shrinking the size of the picture by several inches all the way around and changing the figure-ground relationship.

From Los Angeles Times

Unrelieved by white or any figure-ground push-pull, Ms. Korman’s colors are saturated, even slightly dark and structured into intuitive compositions; they press forward with an unusual emotional and optical intensity.

From New York Times

“Recollections of My Nonexistence” is an un-self-centered book that often reverses the figure-ground relationship, portraying the emergence of a writer and her voice from a particular cultural moment and set of fortuitous influences.

From New York Times