‘The series Quotations is built on dramaturgy, the play in the conflict between two juxtaposed, different painting practices that have different origins, each of which has its own historical roots.

(…) The traditions of suprematism demand that multi-coloured geometric planes be grouped and fly around somewhere nearby the center of the painting space, this depth and distance of white space belongs to them, these second and third planes (speaking in the language of classic painting) are the place of their existence. In “Quotations” there is a rearrangement of these geometric figures from the depths where they “floated around” forward (to the foreground), toward the frame of the painting where they, in accordance with the visual laws of painting, turned out to be immobile. In this way, the space of the secondary and tertiary planes turned out to be free, unoccupied, and in connection with that, these figures acquired additional energy – curiosity (…)’.

‘(…) the positioning of realistic space behind the suprematist “fence” imparts to that space a shade of additional luminescence, and what is particularly interesting, it creates an “air of freedom”, a desire to escape “to there” to be “there”. (…) In the described composition, “suprematism” plays the role of design, décor, whereas “realism” plays the role of content, meaning (…) So it is this “non-consent” to execute a role assigned to it that places “suprematism” in “Quotations” in a relationship of dramatic conflict with realism in the centre of the painting and creates constantly, as it seems, that “dramatic action” of the entire whole’. (Ilya Kabakov)