David Ligare uses the visual language of Greco-Roman history to create what he calls "unapologetically narrative history pictures." In contrast to modernist and post-modernist approaches to classicism, which emphasize chaos, uncertainty, and irony, Ligare employs classical ideals and theories to highlight the importance of unity, measure, balance, and order in contemporary life.

Ligare believes in the "literate picture" and works within a carefully defined tradition. The works of the fifth-century B.C. Greek sculptor Polykleitos as well as the theories of Pythagoras, the sixth-century Greek mathematician, greatly inform his neo-classical still lifes, figure paintings, and landscapes. This emphasis on classical narrative content and Ligare's belief in the relevance of western cultural values make the paintings radical by present-day pictorial standards, which often stress competing multicultural styles and aesthetics.The clarity of Ligare's paintings, from subject through form, speaks to his passionate belief in the importance of balance. Ligare's compositions focus on the importance of structure as it corresponds to Pythagoras's premise that an underlying harmonic order supports the natural world and all human social interaction. Ligare's paintings, especially his still lifes, rest on rigorous geometric designs wherein the exact proportions, taken from classical art, allow him to express his ideas with utmost clarity. Ligare's interest in surface is evident in the careful depiction of objects and his extraordinary rendition of natural light.

As his subject, Ligare brings the classical model to contemporary relevance with novel interpretations of the Greco-Roman theme of Xenia—a Greek term denoting gifts of food to travelers or strangers and the importance of hospitality. Ligare depicts the landscape of the Californian central coast where he lives as a brilliant, sun-swept Pacific stage, which provides the backdrop for his symbolic objects of hospitality-bowls of fruit, flowers, pottery. In depicting elements of contemporary life through the classical Greek canon, Ligare seeks not to mourn a bygone era, but to emphasize its relevance to our time. Ligare's still lifes, with their repeating structure and stage-like setting, optimistically point to the timeless consistency of nature, and the inherent possibility of harmony in human affairs. For modern viewers unfamiliar with Greek philosophy, Patricia Junker, Curator of American Art at the Seattle Art Museum, writes that Ligare's paintings "reveal universal truths about humanity in a language that is clear, time honored, and accessible."

David Ligare's paintings are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York City, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the San Jose Museum of Art, the Collection of Prints and Drawings at the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum of Art, Madrid, among many others. His work is widely exhibited both in the United States and abroad. The artist currently resides in Salinas, California.