Joan Hernandez Pijuan

Abstract painter Joan Hernández Pijuan had his first exhibition in 1953 and shortly later founded the Sílex Group in Barcelona. He moved to Paris in 1957 where he studied etching and lithography, and his work began to take a geometric configuration in which everyday items appear lonely on plain backgrounds, usually green or gray and framed in grids. Pijuan's works on paper have a very particular style with an expression determined by the colour palette used and the layout of the elements. During the 60's, the artist played with still lifes though a single object such as an egg. During the 70's, Pijuan left his conceptual compositions aside to focus on a millimetric abstraction in which precision is the key to create shadows, textures, and gradients.

He has had retrospectives at Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, Moscow Museum of Modern, and MACBA in Barcelona. In 2005 he was represented at the Venice Biennale.

Courtesy of Aretrama