Already between the two figures presented in a visual field a narration arises invariably.

What could be the connection between the figures which would not be narrative? For example, in the Cezanne’s Bathers, various figures rather assist each other in the same physical manifestation, than tell a story …

It is possible that such another connection between the figures was also proper to the classical painting, since the story, which ties figures, is beyond the scope of its own tasks.

In the work on these group portraits, I focused on the physical presence of several figures in the frame. I was motivated by the idea of bas-relief, the rhythm and structure of which, I think, allows me to use and explore the relationships I am interested in.

Art historian Alois Riegl defines the idea of bas-relief as follows: bas-relief carries out the most rigorous coupling of eye and hand, since its material is a flat surface; it allows an eye to touch and even prescribes a tactile or rather a haptic function to it. Haptic (from the greek ápto – touch) does not mean an external connection of eye with touch, but a type of a vision other than an optics. Bas-relief achieves the unification of these two feelings, touch and sight – the Earth rises to the Sky. The carrier of the haptic function is a frontal examination from a close distance, because the shape and the background are on the same plane – on the surface – equally close to each other and to us.

Such the close frontal gaze may allow us to perceive some other connections and relations between the figures exept the narrative meanings, which arises as the effect of their very presence.