The moment of the stiffening and hardening of motion by the reins of outline, and, above all the fundamental bichrome austerity of the relations between figure and ground, in spite of its vividness, and the details of the texture and colour, could not, given the Murtićian temperament, have endured long. A minute calligraphic script flowed into the rivers of grand and increasingly dynamic strokes that articulated the surface of the picture, joined, parted and divided its fragments; from what had been a reliance on the visible world of flora and fauna (flowers and butterflies), the energy of growth began to gather in the picture itself and with it the energy of colour came to the fore. The grounds were still, commonly, white or light, the lines of articulation were broad and convincing, mainly white and black, the palette was enriched with the green of chlorophyll, the yellow of pollen. In this transitional period, at the beginning of the sixties, one can feel that the pictures were maturing for their very selves, and for something in the future too - the powerful strokes, which the will of the painter harmonised or put at odds with each other, were straining towards a painting of the sign and, from time to time, already attaining it.