AB-MP3-1965-003 — Arcana (1965)

Technical information

Title : Arcana
Date : 1965
Technique : Oil on paper
Dimensions : 50 × 65 cm
Location : Unknown

Biographical / historical context

In the continuity of the major monochrome plates of 1965, Breuillaud introduces here a rare title in his corpus: Arcana. The word guides the reading toward a hidden zone, a depth of the living and of the imagination where forms seem to surge up, hesitate, then undo themselves.

This period sees the artist move beyond images of envelope and gestation alone to approach a more troubled dramaturgy: matter becomes narrative—not through anecdote, but through the tension between apparition and erasure, between figure and dissolution.

Formal / stylistic description

The dark field, abraded by rubbings, is crossed by hybrid figures that stand out in light, as if torn from the ground. At the centre, an anthropomorphic form dominates by its spectral weight: a mask-head and a luminous torso articulate there, while an arm stretches to the left and other limbs are suggested, suspended.

Around it, body fragments, larval heads, and twisting silhouettes appear in touches, sometimes reduced to a contour and a white cavity.

The paper’s reserves, more emphatic than half-tones, give the impression of internal chambers or fossilized organs.

Scratches and hatchings, very present, do not stabilize the scene: they keep it in a state of flux, as if the central figure magnetized peripheral disorder without ever containing it.

Comparative analysis / related works

Arcana occupies a pivotal position among the MP3 plates of 1965: more figurative than Brownian Motion (AB-MP3-1965-002), it nevertheless retains the same vibration of the ground and the same logic of dispersion.

Conversely, the implicit hierarchy created by the central figure sets it apart from works where multiplicity prevails without domination (such as L’espace intérieur, AB-MP3-1965-005).

Through its more haunted climate and its already biting silhouettes, the work prepares the rise toward 1966, when organisms harden and extremities become more claw-like, while extending—under a more unstable form—the spectralized creatures visible in certain works of 1962–1963.

Justification of dating and attribution

The 1965 dating is consistent with the granular black and the abraded rendering of paper, typical of the series reproduced by Pillement.

Figures remain organic and plastically supple, but the emerging aggressiveness of silhouettes and the emphatic use of incisions indicate a transitional step within MP3, prior to the hardening of 1966.

The legible signature on the reproduction, combined with this formal typology, supports the attribution to Breuillaud.

Provenance / exhibitions / publications

Reproduced in Pillement, Visages du Monde, 1967, in the “Mutation Plastique” section. Current location undocumented; probably in a private collection.