Triptych of Montargull 

Curator: Standing before us is Joan Hernandez Pijuan’s "Triptych of Montargull." It's a minimalist painting, comprised of three vertical rectangular panels. Editor: Hmm, "minimalist" is definitely one word for it. My first thought? It feels like sunshine after a long, long winter. Very calm, like a gentle, early spring. But almost oppressively yellow! Curator: Right. The lack of distinct markings, beyond these rectangles, allows one to concentrate on the textural elements. And it definitely situates itself in the exploration of form central to much modernist painting. Editor: And to its meaning, or lack of it? I mean, do these remind anyone else of doors? Three portals to who knows where? Or, is that reading into things? I suppose you might view the stark repetition and simplified structure through a symbolic lens if you're feeling allegorical! Curator: Pijuan was particularly concerned with rural depopulation, as I understand it, and so it’s easy to interpret works like these, painted late in his life, as being bound up in those concerns. If you are sensitive to Pijuan's biography and social interests, it may be simpler to situate this artwork within the debates about rural flight affecting Montargull. It gives his minimalist art a unique historical identity and highlights social critique within the form. Editor: That adds an important layer, absolutely. I'm now wondering if these vertical segments don't just evoke doorways but fields themselves, lying empty perhaps. Is Pijuan mourning an exit? Still, even divorced from that, there is, for me, this real raw emotive punch. Curator: He's forcing a reflection, certainly, a historical, societal reckoning of form, ruralism, minimalism, and the political implications. I wonder what role institutions like our own play in that dialogue? Editor: Maybe it starts here with that sunshine punch, in this moment right here? Making you see it a bit differently hopefully!