Joan Hernández Pijuan

JOAN HERNÁNDEZ PIJUAN (Barcelona, 1931–2005).
“Split Apple,” 1971.
Charcoal and pastel on paper.
On the reverse, a label from Sala Gaudí, Barcelona.
Measurements: 77 x 58 cm.

“Split Apple” belongs to a decisive moment in Hernández Pijuan’s career, when he gradually moved away from informalist gesturality to focus on the relationship between object, space, and void. Around 1970, highly refined still lifes began to appear, featuring isolated elements—apples, glasses, or eggs—that took on an almost metaphysical presence against increasingly bare surfaces.

Here, the apple is reduced to an organic form suspended in a vast empty space. Charcoal delicately defines its volume, while a vertical line—accented by subtle touches of green pastel—divides and creates tension on the paper. The striking disproportion between the small subject and the space surrounding it shifts the focus toward the void itself, an essential device in the artistic language that Hernández Pijuan was developing at the time. The apple appears repeatedly in his work from these years, as is also evident in “Tres pomes-2” (1970).

Joan Hernández Pijuan was one of the key figures in Spanish painting of the second half of the 20th century, recognized for his rigorous exploration of space, landscape, and the essential nature of the image. Trained at the Llotja and the School of Fine Arts in Barcelona, he furthered his studies in printmaking and lithography in Paris and was a member of the Sílex group. He received the National Prize for Plastic Arts in 1981 and the National Prize for Graphic Art in 2004; the Reina Sofía Museum and the MACBA dedicated major retrospectives to him in 1993 and 2003, respectively. His work is included in collections such as those of the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Reina Sofía Museum, the MACBA, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.