Phosphenes (1969)

Technical information

Title : Phosphenes
Date : 1969
Technique : Oil on canvas
Dimensions : 37 × 45 cm
Location : Private collection

Biographical / historical context

This work belongs to the pivotal moment of 1969, when Breuillaud reintroduces pictorial “night” as an active depth, after canvases that were lighter and more diluted. The scene is recomposed as a constellation of autonomous beings, dissociated from one another, as if each figure carried its own field of forces.

Within this phase, the artist explores a painting in which space is no longer defined by ambient light, but by a dark, thick matter capable of bringing forth internal glows. This logic anticipates the developments of 1970, when night becomes an enveloping membrane rather than a mere background.

Formal / stylistic description

The ground is a deep blue-black, crossed by greenish passages and brownish-violet nuances. The surface, irregular and slightly granular, absorbs light while allowing zones of emergence to appear—like breaths within the darkness.

At the center, a large blue-green disc, almost smooth, functions as a nucleus. Around it gravitate biomorphic figures: round faces with marked eyes, extensible bodies, filament-like arms, small outgrowths. The beings do not form a unified narrative; they coexist, each with its own tension, linked by discreet contacts or by lines that seem to magnetize them.

Small touches of orange, pink, or pale yellow appear within the forms like “phosphenes.” These inner gleams do not model bodies in the manner of external lighting; they signal, rather, a vitality trapped within the matter, reinforcing the impression of a nocturnal world inhabited by silent presences.

Comparative analysis / related works

The return to a nocturnal dominant brings the canvas close to AB-MP4-1969-001 (nocturnal pastel) and to certain works where depth is established through a saturated blue. The green filaments and luminous points also foreshadow solutions that become systematic in 1970, when Breuillaud intensifies the opposition between darkness and internal flashes.

The motif of the central disc, by virtue of its role as a nucleus, evokes earlier compositions built around “cells” or orbital centers; here, however, the globe belongs to a more fragmented scene, where the community of beings replaces a single structuring device. This controlled dispersion places the work at the heart of late-1969 research.

Justification of dating and attribution

The “69” date visible at lower left, together with the handwriting of the signature, provides a direct indication. The dark blue-green palette animated by small warm touches, and the autonomy of the biomorphic entities, correspond to the language Breuillaud develops at the end of the 1960s, as he prepares the shift toward the large nocturnal scenes of the early 1970s.

Attribution is further supported by the typology of faces, by the way figures are linked through supple lines and transparencies, and by the treatment of night as a thick, vibrating material. These recurring traits accord with a dating in late 1969.