Abstract art is concerned with figure and ground, in a more direct way perhaps than other visual art forms. If you took a mounted, unprimed canvas and hung it on a white wall, the natural colour of the canvas would distinguish it for the wall, forming a figure with the wall as ground. This constitutes the simplest case. A monochrome painted canvas would make a stronger contrast. Consideration of the context of the work is especially important with minimalist works, where their placement in a gallery is critical to the way they are viewed.

Within the rectangle of the painting a simple element stands out as a figure against a ground, for instance in the series of paintings by Josef Albers, Homage to the Square, example above.

In some of my paintings I have difficulty relating elements to each other, which seems to me now as being a problem of figure and ground. Recognising this may help towards a solution.