AB-MP4-1970-007 — Organic Continental Drift (1970)

Technical information

Title : Organic Continental Drift
Date : 1970
Technique : Pastel
Dimensions : 50 × 65 cm
Location : Private collection

Biographical / historical context

In 1970, Breuillaud reaches a culminating phase of MP4, in which space is conceived through membranes, circulations and internal drifts.

Alongside the large oils—more saturated and more dramatic—he develops a series of substantial pastels that offer a clearer reading of the cellular logic: paper becomes a cartographic support, a field of navigation where multiple planes of existence unfold simultaneously.

Within this corpus, the work presents itself as a structuring node, condensing the idea of an organic world in expansion and in archipelagos.

Formal / stylistic description

The surface opens onto a very dark, almost nocturnal ground against which a large green‑blue organisation stands out.

At the centre, an ample, semi‑transparent circular membrane acts as a nucleus: it contains micro‑scenes, interlocked bodies, embryonic figures and fragments of profiles, as if the image were being fabricated inside a sphere‑matrix.

Around this centre, the composition breaks into masses and islets: at left, a “continent” with phosphorescent edges hosts a slender silhouette and several ocular signs; at right, a large head‑continent with weighted eyes advances toward the viewer, while secondary forms drift on the periphery like satellites.

The black line, nervous and precise, moves from one zone to another, hierarchises layers and maintains a balance between drawing and colour: it indicates passages and lines of force without fully sealing contours.

The palette articulates deep blues and acid greens with infiltrations of ochre and orange, producing an inner light that seems to irradiate from the membranes rather than from any external illumination. The whole reads like a living map, where the drift of forms is equivalent to the movement of plates within a biological space.

Comparative analysis / related works

This organic cartography connects with the 1970 researches on expansion and networking—particularly AB‑MP4‑1970‑006 and AB‑MP4‑1970‑003—while amplifying the scale and complexity of the visible “planes”.

Compared with the contemporary oils, more vertical and more gravitational, the pastel privileges an overhead view and a quasi‑scientific writing, as if the MP4 world were observed in its structure rather than in its dramatic thrust.

The multiplication of satellites and the articulation of archipelagos help to singularise the work within the series of 1970 pastels.

Justification of dating and attribution

The 1970 dating is reinforced by the combination of a large format on paper with a principal blue‑green membrane typical of that year’s pastels, and by the balanced coexistence of fine line and pastel layers.

Recurrent morphologies—ovoid heads, tentacular organisms, embedded micro‑scenes—correspond to studies and variations of the MP4 cycle at the same moment, while the presence of small peripheral cells treated as satellites strengthens the anchoring in this year.