Joan Hernández Pijuan

JOAN HERNÁNDEZ PIJUAN (Barcelona, 1931–2005).
“Serie groc de Nápols, 2,” 1990.
Oil on Arches paper.
Signed and dated.
Measurements: 12.5 x 29.5 cm; 20 x 37 cm (frame).
Joan Hernández Pijuan began his training in Barcelona, attending the La Lonja School and the Sant Jordi School of Fine Arts, before completing his studies at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Appointed professor at the Barcelona School of Fine Arts in 1981, Hernández Pijuan occupies a unique position among Spanish artists of recent decades. He began his career practicing a tragic expressionism with strong social overtones, and during this period, together with the other members of the Sílex Group, he helped form the so-called Barcelona School. In the 1970s, he simplified his style, adopting a geometric and calculated figurative approach, a style he left behind in the following decade to focus on Informalism. His exhibition activity was as extensive and diverse as his own artistic creation. During his lifetime, he held solo exhibitions in various Spanish cities as well as in Zurich, Milan, Johannesburg, Cologne, Geneva, New York, Paris, and Osaka, among other cities around the world, and in 2003, a major retrospective exhibition was dedicated to him at the MACBA in Barcelona, which was later shown at the Musée d’Art et Histoire in Neuchâtel (France), the Konsthalle in Malmö (Sweden), and the Galleria Comunale d’Arte Moderna in Bologna (Italy). Hernández Pijuan served as dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Barcelona, and in 2000 he was named a member of the Royal Academy of San Fernando in Madrid. In 1981, he received the National Prize for the Visual Arts; in 1985, the Cross of Sant Jordi; and in 2004, the City of Barcelona Prize. He was also awarded the Prize from the General Directorate of Fine Arts at the 1957 National Exhibition in Alicante, the First Prize in Painting at the “Peintres Residents” competition in Paris (1958), the “Malibor” Prize at the Ljubljana Print Biennial (1965), the prize at the Krakow International Print Biennial (1966), and the “Vijesnik u Srijedu” editorial prize in Zagreb (1970). Hernández Pijuan is represented at MACBA, the Museum of Spanish Abstract Art in Cuenca, the Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Patio Herreriano Museum in Valladolid, and the Basque Museum of Contemporary Art, as well as at institutions abroad such as the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Liaunig Museum (Austria), the Helsinki and Luxembourg Museums of Contemporary Art, the Kulturstiftung in Bad Homburg (Austria), the Yamaguchi Gallery in Osaka (Japan), the Palace of Fine Arts in Brussels, the National Gallery in Montreal, the Museum of Modern Art in Buenos Aires, and the Sztuki Museum in Łódź (Poland).