Joan Hernández Pijuan, one of the most famous Spanish artists of recent decades, is known for his simple compositions of uniform solid colors. Born in Barcelona, Pijuan graduated from the School of Fine Arts in Sant Jordi. In 1953, his first exhibition took place and presented expressionist works. His first solo exhibition was organized at the Museo Municipal de Mataró in 1955, then he co-founded shortly after the Grupo Silex, which included artists such as Carles Planell, Eduardo Alcoy and Josep Maria Rovira Brull and explored the relationship between contemporary art and primitive tradition, with a particular interest in abstraction and expressionism.
At the end of the 1950s, he lived and worked in Paris, where he learned engraving, lithography and adapted a figurative geometric style. Works from this period incorporate mathematical elements and stack solid objects against gray decorations. It was not until the 1980s that he returned to informal art.
In 1977 he began teaching at the School of Fine Arts in Sant Jordi. In 1989, he was appointed professor of painting in the Department of Fine Arts at the University of Barcelona and became dean in 1992.
A retrospective exhibition takes place at the National Museum Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid. In 2011, another retrospective is organized at the Museum of Modern Art in Moscow.
Pijuan died in Barcelona at the age of 74.
