AB-MP3-1959-005 — Untitled (c. 1959)

Technical information

Title: Untitled
Date: c. 1959
Technique: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 130 × 89 cm
Location: Private collection

Biographical / historical context

From 1959 onward, Breuillaud undertakes a series of larger-format works in which his micro-organic research shifts toward much broader dynamics: torsions, ascents, internal vortices and masses in vertical translation.

This moment corresponds to an intensification of the MP3 cycle, as the artist progressively breaks free from the MP2 mosaic to enter dynamic configurations founded on the internal movement of matter.

The large formats of that year reflect renewed ambition: no longer only to analyse the cell or micro-form, but to explore true chromatic organisms in expansion, traversed by internal flows. AB-MP3-1959-005 fully belongs to this “mobilisation” of colour.

Formal / stylistic description

The work is dominated by a vast central organic mass, an incandescent orange modulated with reds, ochres and deep greens. This entity seems caught in a vertical twisting motion, as if drawn upward or stretched by an internal vortex.

Around this central form extend vertical bands of green and dark blue, functioning as lateral forces—fields of pressure or active membranes. They create a visual “beating” effect and intensify the upward thrust of the main motif.

At the heart of the composition, smaller coloured cells—reds, violets, yellows, greens—are embedded within the orange mass like internal nuclei. Dark lines crossing or edging certain forms suggest fractures, slippages and articulation zones.

The whole evokes a monumental organism in metamorphosis: a living core subjected to energetic flows. The large format gives monumental amplitude to the organic logic already perceptible in the small 1959 works.

Comparative analysis / related works

This work clearly differs from the floating 1959 pastels (AB-MP3-1959-002, 003) by its density and structural verticality.

It is closer to the first major organic compositions of 1960, notably those in which the body of colour becomes an entire volume rather than a simple constellation of cells.

Yet transitional traits remain: the internal fragmentation inherited from MP2; the emergence of energetic central masses, a prelude to the “particles” of 1961; and the use of a warm palette in friction with deep greens, typical of the MP2 → MP3 mutation.

The presence of a “fragmented vortex” (CSV mention) is perfectly consistent with the painting’s internal dynamics: the orange mass is literally worked by a force of rotation or stretching.

Justification of dating and attribution

Several elements support a dating c. 1959: the signature and the date “59” visible at lower right; the warm, saturated palette often used in the large formats of that year; the vertical, torsional dynamic corresponding to the first expansion trials at the end of MP3; and the strong coherence with the CSV indication (“large organic mass / fragmented vortex”).

The pictorial facture (thickness, superimposition, supple transitions) matches the evolution observed between 1958 and 1960.