AB-MP3-1958-002 — Composition (1958)

Technical information

Title: Composition
Date: 1958
Technique: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 46 × 38 cm
Location: Private collection

Biographical / historical context

In 1958, Breuillaud explores a clearer, more constructive path in parallel with his dark networks: he tests the possibility of an “architectured” abstraction in which space is built by stacking planes and by luminous reserves.

This composition belongs to that equilibrium phase: gesture is contained, colour opens out, and forms are distributed according to an almost totemic vertical logic. Breuillaud seems to be seeking a stable structure while leaving dissonances—dark slits, breaks in rhythm—that prevent the image from freezing.

Formal / stylistic description

The vertical format strengthens a reading of ascent. On a warm, pale ground (light ochres, softened oranges), rectangular planes and coloured bands interlock like an architectural maquette.

Colour unfolds in nuanced flats—beiges, mauves, muted blues and greens—and most forms are underlined by a thin green contour that unifies the puzzle and creates a vibrating edge.

Two dark vertical slits act as points of tension: they introduce an abrupt depth and recall the presence of an “interior” within the construction. The paint remains light, with thin layers and passages where the weave of the support can be sensed, reinforcing the sensation of clarity. Variations of transparency and saturation suggest a working process by successive reprises, as if the artist tested several states of balance before fixing the construction.

Comparative analysis / related works

The composition dialogues with earlier research on streets, façades and panel structures (mid-1950s), while shifting the motif toward a fully autonomous abstraction.

Compared with the more turbulent networks of 1958, it emphasises the ordering of planes and the breathing of reserves. It thus forms a more “constructed” counterpart to other works of the same period, preparing the move toward compositions where the contour line—here the green edging—will become a major operator of transformation.

The black slits can be read as “openings”—abstract doors or windows—that maintain a discreet link with an urban imaginary, without reconstructing a descriptive space.

Justification of dating and attribution

The presence of the signature at lower left confirms the artist’s intervention, even if no date is legible on the reproduction.

The dating 1958 is justified by the clear chromatic range, the vertical organisation in blocks, and the use of coloured contours, recurrent elements in works from this year. The whole integrates naturally into the 1957–1959 corpus, when Breuillaud oscillates between architectured construction and the networking of signs.