AB-MP4-1970-002 — Molten Chamber (1970)

Technical information

Title : Molten Chamber
Date : 1970
Technique : Oil on canvas
Dimensions : Unknown
Location : Unknown

Biographical / historical context

In 1970, André Breuillaud reaches a point of incandescence within the MP4 phase: the canvas becomes a living space, crossed by chromatic tensions in which figures, signs, and pulsations condense.

The work belongs to the cycle of large red formats that extend the experiments of 1969 and precede the more structured developments of the early 1970s. Its reproduction as the central double-page spread in the Galerie Chave catalogue (Vence, 1972) attests to the importance granted to this image, perceived as one of the most accomplished formulations of the “ritual” and organic scene of these years.

Formal / stylistic description

On a saturated red ground, modulated by orange and brownish passages, a large central figure imposes itself as an organising nucleus: a translucent body with multiplied limbs, whose spherical head appears like a pale lantern—at once face and globe.

Around it, other entities—vertical, filiform, or massive—stand, bend, and overlap, while secondary faces surface at the periphery, as presences caught in the same matter. The drawing, often in acidic green or nocturnal blue, acts as a seam: it rims volumes, catches the eyes, and makes energy circulate between forms.

The space is not read as a scene in depth but as a “molten chamber,” where bodies seem to emerge from the red, fuse back into it, and leave traces.

Comparative analysis / related works

This canvas is closely related to AB-MP4-1970-001 through its red field governing the composition and the logic of totem figures evolving within an incandescent matter.

It also dialogues with earlier research into ascending forms and floating presences (notably in the production of 1967), while distinguishing itself through a warmer density and a more central articulation. In relation to the works of 1969, the image shows a consolidation of the figure within the coloured magma itself; it announces—without yet reaching them—the more compact closures and more enveloping scenes that will mark the beginning of the 1970s.

Justification of dating and attribution

The dating and attribution rest on a set of plastic indicators characteristic of 1970: the primacy of incandescent red, counterpoints of acidic greens and dark blues, humanoid figures with vibrating contours and partially translucent volumes, and a linear network that makes the line an internal respiration rather than a mere outline.

The centrality of a “globe-person” and the coexistence of peripheral totems are consistent with other MP4 compositions from the same year. Publication as a double-page spread in the Chave catalogue (1972) further reinforces the coherence of this classification and anchors the work within a documented ensemble of the period.

Provenance / exhibitions / publications

Reproduced as a double-page spread in the catalogue for the exhibition André Breuillaud, Galerie Chave, Vence, 1972.