An everyday scene on a rooftop terrace, a smoke break: three men are seated, relaxed and focused on a moment of enjoyment – doing something while doing nothing. We know nothing about their work, about what came before or after, or about what made this break necessary. Not even the photographer’s presence seems to disturb them; for it is undoubtedly a photographic image that serves as the basis for the painting we see here. Highlighted in the picture are gestures and accessories such as watches, loafers, a leather bag; more generally, the style and manner in which these men — identified by the title as architects — are together. Their social dynamics are in the foreground, an unfocused bonding and masculinity, a kind of self-referential eroticism.

While the photographic viewpoint freezes the men’s pose, a shift occurs in the translation into painting. The title, format, technique, and display create a horizon of meaning that concerns both the temporal dimension and the interrelationship…