The figurative art market: the great return of narrative painting

01A return to sources, not a regression

Figuration never completely disappeared from the artistic landscape. Artists such as Gerhard Richter, Luc Tuymans, Marlene Dumas, Peter Doig and Neo Rauch kept a figurative pictorial tradition alive throughout the decades when the market seemed to swear only by abstraction and installation. But what has been happening since the mid-2010s is of a different order. A new generation of artists — Amoako Boafo, Jordan Casteel, Salman Toor, Christina Quarles, Tschabalala Self, Issy Wood, Anna Weyant — has placed narrative figuration at the centre of their practice, with critical and commercial success that has redefined market hierarchies.

This return does not constitute a regression towards figurative academicism. These artists use figuration to address questions of identity, representation, memory and politics that abstraction cannot treat with the same immediacy. Jordan Casteel's painting, which portrays Harlem residents in monumental portraits, inscribes figuration within a tradition of social portraiture while updating it through a contemporary palette and attention to communities under-represented in art history.

02What collectors are looking for

The commercial success of narrative figuration owes much to a quality collectors value: legibility. A figurative painting tells a story, represents a body, a place, a situation. Collectors can identify with it, project their emotions onto it, show it to guests without having to supply explanatory notes. This accessibility takes nothing from the works' depth — Salman Toor's paintings, for example, are sophisticated compositions that operate on several levels of reading — but it facilitates the relationship between the work and its buyer.

Today's collectors, who have often built their wealth in technology or finance, show a marked preference for figurative painting. The collections of figures such as Beth Rudin DeWoody and Jorge Pérez contain a significant proportion of contemporary figurative painting. The KAWS foundation and the auction success of artists associated with the figurative movement confirm this trend: quality figurative works find buyers quickly at steadily rising prices.

Galleries that identified this trend early gained a considerable competitive advantage. Galerie Mariane Ibrahim, based first in Chicago then in Paris, built its programme around figurative artists from the African diaspora and experienced rapid growth. Half Gallery in New York championed narrative figuration from its beginnings, attracting artists who later became sought-after market figures.

03The role of institutions in legitimation

Figuration's return is validated by institutions. The Whitney Museum in New York, the Tate Modern in London and the Centre Pompidou in Paris have programmed major exhibitions devoted to contemporary figurative artists. The exhibition "Mixing It Up: Painting Today" at the Hayward Gallery in 2021 was a crystallising moment, bringing together figurative artists of different generations and origins and demonstrating painting's vitality within the contemporary art panorama.

Institutional acquisitions follow the same logic. Museums are purchasing contemporary figurative works at a sustained pace, conferring on artists a validation that reassures private collectors and supports prices on the secondary market. A figurative artist whose works have entered the collections of MoMA or the Tate benefits from institutional credit that protects their market value over the long term.

For the dealer, this institutional validation is an essential sales argument. When presenting a figurative artist to a collector, the dealer can support the recommendation with museum exhibitions, public acquisitions and critical texts that inscribe the artist within a legitimate art history. Narrative figuration is no longer a marginal position: it stands at the centre of the concerns of the art world's most respected institutions.

04How the dealer positions

A dealer wishing to integrate narrative figuration into the programme must operate with discernment. The figurative market is vast and heterogeneous. It includes artists of very high quality whose work will stand the test of time, but also painters whose success is primarily driven by market trends and whose prices could collapse when tastes shift.

The essential selection criterion remains quality of work. A figurative artist with mastered technique, coherent purpose and ambitious programme merits the dealer's attention regardless of market conditions. Conversely, a painter whose success rests solely on the visual seduction of images, without conceptual depth or formal ambition, represents a risk for the gallery that champions them.

Galerie Almine Rech illustrates a balanced approach. Its programme includes leading figurative artists such as Genieve Figgis and Harold Ancart, alongside artists working in other registers. This diversity protects the gallery from trend reversals while allowing it to benefit from the current figurative market dynamic. Galerie Perrotin has adopted a similar strategy, integrating artists such as Javier Calleja and Mr. into a programme that remains stylistically diverse.

Pricing strategy is another key concern. The dealer launching a young figurative artist should resist the temptation to set high prices simply because the figurative market is buoyant. Measured starting prices that rise progressively in line with institutional exhibitions and critical recognition protect both artist and gallery against market corrections. Galerie Mendes Wood DM, which represents Brazilian and international figurative artists, is recognised for its progressive pricing policy that favours long-term career building over immediate profit.

05Figurative painting and international fairs

Contemporary art fairs are a privileged observation ground for the figurative market dynamic. At Art Basel, Frieze and Paris+, booths presenting figurative painting attract a particularly dense flow of visitors. Figurative narrative painting possesses a visual hook quality that works remarkably well in the fair context, where visitors pass dozens of booths and where a work must capture attention in seconds.

Galerie Mariane Ibrahim has experienced fairs where the entire booth sold out within the first hours, driven by collector enthusiasm for narrative figuration. Galerie Templon, which presents figurative artists such as Kehinde Wiley and Chiharu Shiota, regularly finds that its figurative works generate a higher volume of enquiries than its other offerings at fairs.

For the mid-sized dealer, fair presence with a figurative programme represents an opportunity to gain recognition among an international audience. Figurative narrative painting transcends cultural and linguistic barriers, facilitating conversation with collectors of all backgrounds and enabling lesser-known galleries to stand out in a competitive environment.

06The risks of speculation

The success of narrative figuration has attracted speculators who have driven the prices of certain artists to levels disconnected from their institutional trajectory. Works by early-career artists have sold at auction at prices multiplied tenfold in a few years, creating speculative bubbles whose consequences can be devastating for the artists involved.

A responsible dealer must protect artists from this dynamic. Rigorous collector selection, right-of-first-refusal clauses, limiting the number of available works and controlling the pace of price increases are tools that the most serious galleries use to maintain a healthy market. David Zwirner Gallery is known for the rigour with which it manages the markets of its figurative artists, refusing to sell to buyers whose speculative intentions are evident.

The dealer must also educate collectors. A collector who buys a figurative work out of conviction in the quality and relevance of the work will remain a long-term supporter of the artist. A speculator who buys only because the market is rising will sell at the first correction, contributing to market destabilisation. The conversation between dealer and collector should focus on the artistic and cultural value of the work, not solely on its potential for financial appreciation.

07Figuration and diversity of voices

One of the most remarkable aspects of figuration's return is that it is accompanied by a diversification of voices. The artists driving this movement come from varied geographic and cultural backgrounds, and their figurative practice is inseparable from the identity questions they raise. Amoako Boafo's painting, which portrays Black subjects with a finger-painting technique that lends his portraits a unique tactile quality, cannot be understood outside the context of the representation of Black bodies in Western art history.

This political and identity dimension of contemporary figuration gives the works a relevance that extends beyond the market. Museums acquire these works because they contribute to rewriting art history from perspectives long rendered invisible. Collectors acquire them because they say something about the world we live in. The dealer who grasps this dimension and communicates it to collectors creates a bond between the work and its buyer that transcends the simple transaction.

08The future of narrative figuration

Narrative figuration is not a passing fashion destined to fade. It reflects a deep need among audiences and collectors to reconnect with works that speak of the real world, that represent bodies, stories and recognisable emotions. Abstraction and conceptual art will continue to occupy an essential place in the contemporary art landscape, but figuration has re-established itself durably as a legitimate and dynamic practice.

The dealer who takes a position on this terrain today, with discernment and rigour in artist selection, positions favourably for the years ahead. The key lies in the ability to distinguish artists whose work carries a personal and ambitious vision from those riding a commercial wave. The former will build lasting careers that the gallery can accompany over the long term. The latter risk disappearing as quickly as they appeared, leaving the gallery with devalued stock and a damaged reputation.

For galleries present on Artedusa, figurative narrative painting constitutes a programming axis particularly suited to the platform, where high-quality reproduction allows collectors to discover artists whose work lends itself by nature to online presentation while inviting them to see the originals in gallery spaces.