“Tired of ferrying souls across the river Acheron in exchange for coin, Charon has become a food and pizza delivery guy. As he rides a flying container, he zips weightlessly back and forth across an imaginary, ethereal world”. This is the description provided by Quim Hereu of his work for the cover of the 2019-2020 García de Pou catalogue. The artwork depicts Charon’s old boat empty and unused, as well as various “strambotic beings watching his movements which are worthy of the best French acrobat. In the background, a snail of Time hands out eternal youth to anyone who wants it”. This is a hugely characteristic piece by Quim Hereu, a Catalan painter considered to be the leading exponent of Strambotism, an artistic offshoot that was begun by Joan Fuster Gimpera in the 1970’s in L’Empordà. Gimpera passed down the art of Strambotism to Hereu so he could be his successor and revitalise it. By applying his unique style to the underlying essence of the products by García de Pou, he has produced a piece of exquisite quality.
As we have every year for over 30 years, we commissioned a renowned artist to design the cover for the annual García de Pou catalogue. Quim Hereu was chosen this year, but the other artists to have drawn or painted the cover of our catalogue include Javier Mariscal, Daniel Torres, Forges, Antonio Vives Fierro, Ramon Moscardó, Antoni Pitxot, Manel Anoro and Leonard Beard.
Quim Hereu believes that having been chosen to produce this work “is a blessing” because “people should understand that they need to buy work from living painters, the dead don’t need it any longer, and if the commissioned piece goes on to form part of a series of works by other artists then all the better because it will never feel alone”.
A self-taught professional sketch artist and painter, Quim Hereu (Girona, 1963) embraced the work of great Romantic, Renaissance and Surrealist artists through a fascination for the perfectionism of drawing and the application of oil. L’Empordà, where he grew up, was his main source of inspiration. He set up his first studio in 1983 in Girona, where he showed his work at various galleries. However, he soon began to travel the world in search of cultures and exoticism to fuel his imagination. Today, from his studio in the DOR Museum at the La Fortalesa Cultural Complex (Sant Julià de Ramis), Quim Hereu is promoting Strambotism with the largest trilogy of oil paintings in the world: Time, Power and Liberty.
The new 2019-2020 catalogue from García de Pou will be released the 15th of April, with the addition of more than 300 new products.
Take a look at the artistic history of our catalogue covers.
