AB-MP3-1959-003 — Untitled (c. 1959)

Technical information

Title: Untitled
Date: c. 1959
Technique: Pastel on paper
Dimensions: 20 × 25 cm
Location: Private collection

Biographical / historical context

In 1959, Breuillaud increasingly explores the coloured micro-structures that will form the basis of his “proto-cosmic” thinking. In modest formats, pastel becomes a testing medium that allows him to probe cellular configurations, internal tensions and orbital dynamics before their expansion in the more ambitious works of 1960–1961.

This period functions as a laboratory of organic and energetic units: ovoid forms, semi-translucent masses, dense nuclei and rupture lines. These entities are not yet “particles” in the 1961 sense, but they undeniably constitute their preforms.

Formal / stylistic description

The pastel presents a set of ovoid shapes, as if suspended, on a vibrant turquoise ground. At the centre, a large violet-and-pink circular entity, marked by zones of intense blue, dominates the image. It seems animated by an inner pulse, heightened by the way colours merge or collide.

Secondary masses—reds, yellows, burgundies—orbit around it, each crossed or edged by dark lines that function as axes of tension or internal division. A dark sphere at left reinforces the impression of an embryonic constellation.

Contours are firm yet softened by the pastel’s texture, producing an effect of energetic micro-organisms or cells floating in a quasi-liquid space.

Comparative analysis / related works

This structure directly evokes other small 1959 pastels (notably AB-MP3-1959-002 for its floating logic), but with greater graphic tension here.

The dark lines announce future “fissures” or “articulation axes” observed in the 1960 works, while the large central entity prefigures the logic of the “energetic nucleus” that will culminate in Elementary Particles (1961).

Compared with the 1958 formats, the work clearly breaks with the MP2 mosaic in favour of more autonomous masses, each with its own dynamic: the first proto-cosmic micro-entities.

Justification of dating and attribution

The dating “c. 1959” is supported by: the use of pastel in a small format, characteristic of studies from that year; the turquoise/rose/yellow/blue palette typical of the 1959 experiments; the appearance of individualised ovoid masses, prior to the more developed structures of 1960; the number “59” visible at lower left; and the concordance with the CSV note (“proto-cosmic micro-entity”).