Regle groc 1972

Joan Hernandez Pijuan made this painting, Regle groc, with what looks like oil on canvas. The surface has this sort of matte blackness—it feels very still, like a dark sky. Pijuan has positioned a bright, yellow line across the center. It’s so precise it gives the impression of a horizon, or some type of measurement. But what is being measured, you might ask? This work seems to relate to Agnes Martin’s, or Robert Ryman’s, paintings, where the physical properties are so important to the overall aesthetic. The line seems to be asking, how much can be subtracted before the painting disappears entirely? Painters are in an ongoing exchange of ideas, always responding to art history. With Regle groc, Pijuan prompts us to consider painting as an embodied form of expression, a form that embraces ambiguity while inviting various perspectives.