AB-CC-1971-002 — Tapestry of the Demonic (1971)

Technical information

Title : Tapestry of the Demonic
Date : 1971
Technique : Oil on canvas
Dimensions : 89 × 116 cm
Location : Unknown

Biographical / historical context

In 1971, André Breuillaud begins the first inflections of the CC (“Cosmic–Cellular”) cycle while still, in places, retaining the organic density of the late MP4 years.

Tapestry of the Demonic stands precisely at this tipping point: the broad red field of the infernal compositions of the mid‑1960s returns, but it is now traversed by a more nervous writing—scattered micro‑figures, chromatic nuclei, and inner pulsations that are less massive.

The canvas thus condenses two regimes: the earlier saturated magma and an emerging logic of cell‑beings, more isolated and more legible, preparing the works of the years to come.

Formal / stylistic description

The surface unfolds like a red‑orange membrane, close to an incandescent textile, where ferruginous reds, burnt ochres, and darker brown‑plum zones mingle.

Within this continuous field, bodies appear here and there—not as distinct scenes, but as apparitions caught within the substance: anthropo‑organic silhouettes, profiles, heads with half‑closed eyes, limbs in arabesque, and small ancillary creatures that seem grafted onto the principal forms.

A darker, blue‑black core, punctuated with eyes, acts as a gravitational focus: it draws trajectories in, organizes circulations, and gives the whole a swirling, almost centrifugal movement.

The brushwork alternates rough rubbings with velvety passages, with lighter highlights grazing certain volumes and enhancing the impression of a tactile relief, somewhere between flesh and mineral.

Comparative analysis / related works

With its red bath and proliferating figures, the work extends the large saturated compositions of the late 1960s; it differs, however, in its clearer organization and in the importance granted to punctual elements—eyes, small nuclei, micro‑bodies—that already function as units.

Where the densest MP4 canvases tend to fuse forms into an almost total continuity, this painting introduces pauses and zones of attraction, notably around the blue‑black center.

Still rare at this date, such articulation makes the work a bridge piece: it preserves magmatic amplitude while introducing a more cellular syntax and a more structured internal dramaturgy.

Justification of dating and attribution

The dating to 1971 is supported by the coexistence of late MP4 markers with indices typical of the CC cycle’s beginnings: figures less fusion‑like than in the mid‑1960s, smoother contours, the multiplication of small connected entities, and the appearance of bluish counter‑tones within a warm matrix.

The central role of a dark, organizing focus reinforces the idea of a transition between the dispersion of the 1960s and the establishment of internal axes in the early 1970s.

The work is reproduced, titled, and dated in the Catalogue Michelle Philippon (1972), confirming the coherence of this attribution.

Provenance / exhibitions / publications

Catalogue Michelle Philippon (1972).