AB-63A-1963-002 — At the Origins of the Kingdoms (1963)

Technical information

Title: At the Origins of the Kingdoms
Date: 1963
Technique: Oil on paper
Dimensions: 65 × 50 cm
Location: Unknown

Biographical / historical context

In 1963, the 63A cycle marks the abandonment of clear transparencies in favour of an organic density in which forms thicken, hollow out and stratify. In this phase, Breuillaud seems to question a genesis: that of living forms still undifferentiated, where the mineral, vegetal and animal coexist within a single matrix.

At the Origins of the Kingdoms condenses this project. The sheet presents a primordial organism, like a common origin of the kingdoms, and its mention in the Pillement Catalogue (1967) indicates that it was perceived as a representative milestone of this organic cosmogony.

Formal / stylistic description

A large, light body occupies most of the field, set against a dense black ground that acts as a material night. The main form unfolds in an arc, with a dark border that outlines and grounds it, while the interior is worked with white reserves and grey zones, like open chambers or honeycomb cells.

Several cavities—sometimes circular—punctuate the mass and suggest an implicit anatomy: one thinks of orbits, ducts, pockets. In the upper part, a cluster of rounded volumes, comparable to a cerebral bunch, reinforces the idea of an organism in the process of formation.

On the right, a sharper, almost horn-like outgrowth introduces directional tension. The granular, rubbed surface oscillates between mineral deposit and skin.

Comparative analysis / related works

Through its logic of cavities and internal partitions, the work stands in direct continuity with The Petrified Forest (AB-63A-1963-001), with which it shares the drama of light torn from darkness and the ambiguity between geological cross-section and fossilised organism.

It is nevertheless distinguished by a more matricial character: the image evokes not only petrification, but a source—a generating core. Within the neighbouring 1963 corpus, this organisation into chambers and implicit organs connects it to sheets in which the motif tightens toward the mask or the face, signalling a drift from the organic toward apparition.

Justification of dating and attribution

The 1963 dating is supported by the disappearance of the diffuse luminosity typical of 1962 and by the installation of a violent contrast between a light mass and a dark ground, associated with a fibrous network and strongly asserted contours.

The handling—rubbings, scratches and pigment absorbed into the paper—corresponds to the experiments of the 63A cycle.

The mention of the work in the Pillement edition (1967), as well as the “63” year visible on the reproduction, confirm its place at this moment. Attribution to Breuillaud is supported by the coherence of the formal vocabulary: cavities, nuclei and organic compartmentalisations treated as structures in mutation.

Provenance / exhibitions / publications

Mentioned in the Pillement Catalogue (1967).