AB-64C-1964-006 — The Monster (II) (1964)

Technical information

Title: The Monster (II)
Date: 1964
Technique: Oil on panel
Dimensions: 32 × 25 cm
Location: Private collection

Biographical / historical context

In 1964, Breuillaud continues the “monsters” series—border forms in which imaginary creature, organic mass and mental figure converge.

After the intensity of the red matrices of the 63B cycle, the 64C sub-ensemble shifts toward a cooled range of green-black, opaque whites and lactescent nuances.

The Monster (II) can be understood as the polar counterpart to Monster (I): the presence no longer asserts itself through blazing colour, but through a kind of luminous exsanguination, as if the organism had emptied out and left only a chalky skin and its internal tensions.

This direction, through its play of membranes and translucencies, foreshadows the “pale beings” and more overtly translucent envelopes that will assert themselves in 1965.

Formal / stylistic description

The image is occupied by a large central white-green volume, spread as an irregular oval—at once thick and diaphanous—like a breathing mass whose surface lifts in places.

Dark pockets—oval or circular—punctuate this body: cavities, internal opacities, holes in matter that introduce a muted unease into the dominant milkiness.

A network of fine, fibrous lines crosses the form without enclosing it; it evokes liquid paths, nerves, seams, or light incisions that map the interior of the volume.

A deep, almost monochrome green background envelops the whole like a nocturnal casing, reinforcing the impression of an organism suspended in space.

The paint is worked through rubbings, striations and discreet reprises; these micro-interventions give the surface an icy texture, where white catches the light while remaining fragile.

Comparative analysis / related works

Its relationship with The Monster (I) (AB-64C-1964-005) is immediate, but inverted: warm black-ochre density is answered here by a cold, whitish-green dissolution, as if the same entity had changed state.

In certain respects, the work reactivates whitened organs and membranous logics already present in the 1962 cycles, but without any choreography of larval figures: the whole tightens into a single morphism that concentrates tension.

It stands apart from the more mineral 64A works and the more cosmic, dynamic 64B works: in 64C, form becomes “psychic”, enclosed within its own volume.

The handling of whites—thick yet luminous—and the way the internal network is allowed to surface without hardening places the work at the threshold of the translucent research of 1965.

Justification of dating and attribution

The 1964 dating is supported by the green-black chromaticism paired with opaque whites, typical of the 64C sub-cycle, and by a linear network inherited from 1962–1963, here softened and absorbed into a single mass.

The very principle of the “monsters” series—isolated organisms—and the clear formal dialogue with The Monster (I) tie the piece solidly to mid-1964.

Technique and handling—rubbings, striations and discreet reprises within a chalky body—correspond to Breuillaud’s manner at this transitional moment, confirming attribution.