AB-MP3-1959-006 — Strange Forms (1959)

Technical information

Title: Strange Forms
Date: 1959
Technique: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 73 × 92 cm
Location: Private collection

Biographical / historical context

In 1959, Breuillaud passes through a pivotal transition: the coloured mosaic inherited from MP2 gradually dissolves in favour of more supple, organic entities endowed with an almost bodily presence.

This period corresponds to what might be called the genesis of the proto-organic, when colour ceases to be a simple cell and becomes volume, flesh, pulsation.

The large formats of 1959–1960—of which Strange Forms is a significant milestone—mark this rise toward a carnal abstraction, where the artist explores the ambiguity between human form, living organism and inner metamorphosis.

Formal / stylistic description

The composition presents a central vertical figure in a dense orange-pink, whose contours remain deliberately unstable. The body appears in fusion, animated by an internal vibration carried by tight touches and thick matter.

Dark zones—blacks, deep greens, violets—mark cavities, slits and shadow areas that can evoke eyes, organic orifices, or simply chromatic pivot points.

A very luminous yellow-ochre ground envelops the figure in a warm halo, giving the impression that the whole emerges from an opaque, almost amniotic atmosphere.

Fragmentation into cells persists, but is no longer structuring: it floats, dissolves and merges into the whole. The central figure thus seems in a state of mutation, oscillating between body, spectre and organism in formation.

Comparative analysis / related works

This work stands midway between the small-format micro-entities (AB-MP3-1959-002, 003) and the large energetic masses such as AB-MP3-1959-005.

Through its verticality, carnal density and accentuated shadow zones, it directly anticipates certain works of 1960 and 1961 in which Breuillaud explores organic silhouettes in full expansion (ascending forms, body-membranes, etc.).

Compared with the Roussillon earths or the geological compositions of the same year, the painting is more incarnate and more ambiguous—closer to a metamorphosed human presence—while remaining strictly non-figurative.

Justification of dating and attribution

The dating to 1959 is supported by: the warm palette (pinks, oranges, yellows) counterbalanced by green-black shadows, typical of oils from that year; the thick, nervous texture, still very MP3; and the presence of vertical, carnal forms that announce 1960 while retaining fragmentation inherited from 1958–59.

The CSV mention (“carnal mutation / proto-organic”) is fully coherent with the analysis, and the red signature at lower left corresponds to the artist’s practice at this period.

The work is signed and dated “60” on the front; however it is signed, titled and dated “1959” on the reverse. It is likely that the painting was definitively completed in 1960.