AB-MP3-1965-007 — Mineral Repose with Organic Forms (1965)

Technical information

Title : Mineral Repose with Organic Forms
Date : 1965
Technique : Mixed media on paper
Dimensions : 50 × 65 cm
Location : Private collection *

Biographical / historical context

In the mid-1960s, Breuillaud continues to explore a biomorphic universe in which body, rock, and vegetal life seem to belong to a single substance. Works on paper of this format (50 × 65 cm), often built in successive layers and through rubbings, form a laboratory: the line tests silhouettes, while blocks of colour establish an atmosphere that is more mental than descriptive. In this context, the date 1965 corresponds to a phase of stabilization of the organic language that emerged the previous year: the figure simplifies, gains in volume and density, and the composition tightens around a central nucleus, like an interior scene.

Formal / stylistic description

The composition is constructed like a bas-relief: a large light form—ivory and sand—occupies most of the field, set into a dark blue‑green zone that acts as a casket. Around it, a brown-red border envelops the whole, creating the effect of an internal frame and reinforcing the impression of a chamber or cavity.

On the left, a vertical volume evokes a mask or a head without a gaze, reduced to a few softened reliefs; beneath this block, a second, lower rectangular module doubles the idea of an architectural element. At the centre and toward the right, the large pale organism unfolds in arcs and folds: a main curve draws a supple diagonal close to an elongated body, while a series of roundings and swellings suggest supports, joints, or mineral nodules. A thin greenish contour, sometimes doubled by a darker line, holds the masses in tension and gives the volumes an almost “moulded” quality.

The surface treatment alternates smudging, rubbings, and linear reworkings. The light passages are modelled by warm shadows (ochres, pinks, browns), as if the matter had been patinated. The deeper blue‑green zones carry scratches and filaments of line that animate the penumbra. A few green accents, at the upper centre and in the interstices, insinuate a vegetal pulse, without tipping into narration: everything remains within a logic of imprint and metamorphosis.

Comparative analysis / related works

The work converses with the biomorphic compositions of the early 1960s, where Breuillaud sets up “theatres” of forms: a closed stage, floating masses, silhouettes in the process of appearing. Compared with the sheets of 1964—often more abrupt, more linear, more nervous—this composition privileges tactile continuity: contours are less incisive, volumes more unified, as if the figure were sculpted from a single paste.

It also differs from later works at the end of the 1960s and around 1970, when the palette intensifies and more explicit signs emerge (eyes, luminous orbits, entities multiplied in space). Here, the imagination remains contained: two or three blocks suffice to establish a presence. Tension arises less from profusion than from the “body–casket” relation: a clear, vulnerable mass against a nocturnal field that tightens around it.

The mineral analogy suggested by the convenience title is justified by the sensation of a polished pebble and a fossil: swellings, folds, cavities, oxidation-like lines. At the same time, the plasticity of the curves maintains the ambiguity of the living— a repose that could be that of an organism, a heated stone, or a sleeping figure.

Justification of dating and attribution

The date 1965 is consistent with a hinge moment between the highly structured research of 1964 (biomorphic scenes with a strong presence of drawing) and the more cosmic, more chromatic opening of the end of the decade. The tightened composition, the use of a dark “casket” around a pale mass, and the modelling through rubbing and patina belong to a workshop logic characteristic of the mid-1960s. The 50 × 65 cm format, frequent in this sequence, reinforces the hypothesis of a serial production on paper, where variation concerns the density of forms and the temperature of the palette.