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

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

From New York Times • Nov. 3, 2022

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 • May 31, 2022

In fact, the hovering color planes deconstruct a conventional picture — foreground, background, figure-ground relationship, interior, exterior, color harmonies, scale and frame.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 21, 2016

The effect – now a common analytical technique, known as figure-ground – reveals the characteristic pattern of streets and buildings that underlies urban form.

From The Guardian • Nov. 22, 2012

Nevertheless, something of Cartesian logic crept into his fantasies; his pictures took on orderly geometry; his images lost traditional figure-ground relationships and, instead, flattened against the picture plane in search of purely visual values.

From Time Magazine Archive