Joan Hernández Pijuan Conference in Paris - "Catalan landscapes in 20th century Catalan painting and literature": Joan Hernández Pijuan - Tornar a París

The Galerie Andres Thalmann is pleased to present Tornar a París, an exhibition dedicated to one of the most important figures of Catalan painting: Joan Hernández Pijuan (1931-2005).

Our exhibition and newly published catalogue present a careful selection of essential drawings, paintings and prints from the late 90’s to 2005 by "an artist who made space the singular protagonist of his art. His is a unique space, the space of landscape lived and experienced, made intimate, which simultaneously allows the space of painting – that of his highly diverse supports – to itself become landscape. Thus, without reproducing nature, his works capture the very emotions it elicits and are a silent expression of his sentiments and reflections on nature as landscape.

One can perceive, in a broad range of formats and papers, the intimate character of Joan Hernández Pijuan’s drawing and painting. Nevertheless, the spontaneous brushstrokes and colors of his particular palette create a repertoire of extremely eloquent images and compositions of great evocative power." 

"Hernández Pijuan’s paintings are spaces that seem to expand before our eyes, silent spaces where things hide and speak to us about what we don’t see in what we see, about what we do not perceive in what we perceive, about what appears not to be in what is there.

It is impossible to separate these Catalan landscapes from Hernández Pijuan’s work or from the way he understood, questioned or simply observed them. They are no longer merely physical places, but rather chapters in a creative biography founded on a persevering commitment to painting and the persistent rediscovery of landscape. They are snapshots of a memory that captures the experience for barely a moment, returning us time and time again to the beginning, to that familiar place that is none other than the one we have yet to know."

Pijuan has received major awards such as the Spanish National Art Prize and the National Graphic Art Prize. He represented Spain three times at the Venice Biennale and has exhibited in renowned museums including the Museo Reina Sofía and MACBA Barcelona. His works are held in many important international collections, e.g. the Metropolitan and MoMA in New York.
 

*Joan Hernández Pijuan: La distancia del dibujo, 18 enero - 18 octubre 2008 exhibition catalogue, Fundación Juan March, Museo de Arte Abstracto Español, Cuenca, Museu d’Art Espanyol Contemporani, Palma.
**Valentín Roma, An Approach to Joan Hernández Pijuan’s Work on Paper.  

Joan Hernández Pijuan – Tornar a París
18th of November 2025 – 28th of February 2026