Joan Hernández Pijuan (Barcelona, Spain, 1931) trained at the Escola d'Arts i Oficis de la Llotja and the Escola de Belles Arts de Barcelona. In 1957 he moved to Paris, where he furthered his studies in engraving and lithography at the École des Beaux-Arts.
After an early period close to gestural expressionism, he evolved towards a geometric figuration characterized by broad fields of color and the presence of isolated objects—fruits, goblets, eggs, or scissors—treated with intense symbolic meaning. Color, approached with great refinement and a marked mystical sensibility, was always one of the central axes of his work. On plain backgrounds and stripes in shades of gray and green, Hernández Pijuan incorporated mathematical references such as grids or measuring tapes, integrated into a rigorous and meditative structure. Tonal gradations, transparencies, textures, and luminous vibrations constitute essential elements of his pictorial language.
From the 1980s onward, his work incorporated new forms—the profile of a cypress tree, the furrows of a plow, or the silhouette of a leaf—without ever abandoning abstraction. Toward the end of that decade, he returned to Informalism, developing a style of extreme austerity characterized by a palette limited to black and white. In this period, his work acquired an atmospheric and spiritual dimension, in which painting became an exercise in inner contemplation.
His work as an engraver also stands out, where he developed a meticulous work of the plot and the serial element, also dominated by monochrome.
Since his first solo exhibition at the Museu de Mataró in 1955, Hernández Pijuan has exhibited continuously in prominent national and international art spaces. Among the major retrospectives dedicated to his work are those organized by the Centre Cultural Tecla Sala in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat (1992), the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid (1993), the MACBA in Barcelona (2003), and the Museum of Modern Art in Moscow (2011). His work is part of important public collections, such as those of the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the National Gallery of Canada in Montreal, the Museum of Modern Art in Buenos Aires, the Reina Sofía Museum, and the MACBA.
