Rediscovering a known landscape 2004

Joan Hernandez Pijuan made "Rediscovering a Known Landscape" with paint, and a knowing hand, probably sometime in the late 20th century. It's mostly blacks and whites, but that's never just simple, is it? It's all about how those colors get put down, the feel of the brush, the pressure, the drag. I get a real sense of the hand in this piece; look closely, and you can almost see the tracks of the brush, the way the paint is thicker in some spots, thinner in others. The texture isn't hidden. It’s there, proud, like the record of a dance. See how the broad border of black paint makes the internal motif almost like a woven object, a kind of handmade textile, or piece of basketry. And then inside that, the horizontal lines – are they water? Are they marks on the earth? Who knows! Pijuan's work reminds me a little of Agnes Martin in its quiet repetition. Neither tell you what to think, but they both show you how they feel. It’s not about answers, it’s about the questions.