In his works, André Butzer explores the possibilities of the medium of painting and hovers constantly on the dividing line between abstraction and figuration. Butzer generally works with large formats, which he paints with thick layers of color. His “N-Bilder” images, a series of geometric paintings with broad swathes of color, represent the culmination of his creativity as well as a fluctuation between abstract and figural painting. The central concepts in Lena Tilk’s art-theoretical writing are figuration and abstraction. Here, the author explores the history of discourse on this dichotomy, which represents one of the fundamental problem areas of art history and art theory. Within the text, she presents the “N-Bilder” series along with the process of its development and its position in the context of Butzer’s œuvre. Further in the study, she outlines how the “N-Bilder” relate to figuration, non-figuration and abstraction.