On the Edge of Abstraction: Why Slight Distortion Creates Mystery in Figurative Art

I came across a note in one of my old journals recently — a line I must have jotted down years ago:

“…taking a figurative image to the verge — but just short — of abstraction gives it a mysterious and compelling tension.”

That phrasing struck me again, and I realised how deeply it captures the magic that happens when a figure is recognisable yet subtly altered.
A face becomes more intriguing when it is elongated, simplified, stylised, or shifted slightly off-centre. Familiarity remains — but something else begins to stir beneath the surface.

Francis Bacon articulated this beautifully:

“If you want to convey fact, this can only ever be done through a form of distortion. You must distort to transform what is called appearance into image.”
— Francis Bacon

This idea reveals a profound truth: distortion is not a mistake. It is a deliberate artistic choice that allows emotion, tension, and psychological depth to take shape.

When a figure sits between realism and abstraction — recognisable but not literal — the viewer pauses. They sense a story, a mood, a mystery.
They are drawn in because the work feels both familiar and slightly strange.

That “just short of abstraction” space is where so much expressive power resides. It opens a doorway between the seen and the sensed, the literal and the symbolic. And it gives figurative art a haunting, compelling resonance — the kind that lingers long after you’ve looked away.