If his recent scandalous trials risk taking him away from Hollywood sets for some time, Johnny Depp can always fall back on his brushes. The 59-year-old actor, who has been enjoying the joys of painting for decades, “just added 3 million pounds [plus de 3,5 millions d’euros] to his fortune, after hundreds of fans bought his first collection almost instantly”reports The Times.
The sale, entrusted to the London gallery Castle Fine Art, was made up of 780 prints of four portraits of stars – Al Pacino, Elizabeth Taylor, Keith Richards and Bob Dylan – made from photography. The actor had alerted his 21.7 million subscribers on Instagram, who rushed to the gallery’s site as soon as the sale opened on Thursday, July 28. In a few hours, everything was gone.
The four portraits, from the series Friends and Heroes (Friends and Heroes), are hardly revolutionary, and place the artist “at the intersection of pop art and street art”according to the somewhat catch-all description of the gallery. “Pop art with feeling”she summarizes.
The art criticism of TimesLaura Freeman, is unimpressed, comparing the works to photos passed through Instagram filters. “And Andy Warhol already did Liz, only better – 60 years ago. It’s a little Johnny-I’m-coming-Too-Late”she mocks.
The actor nevertheless claims his love for the fine arts. “I have always used art to express my feelings and think about the people who mean the most to me, like my family, my friends and the people I look up to”he says. “My paintings are an integral part of my life, but I had kept them for myself, I limited myself. But no one should ever limit themselves”.
Suiting the action to the word, Johnny Depp did not limit himself when setting the prices of his prints: it cost 4,700 euros for a portrait, and 17,800 euros for the set of four. Castle Fine Art Gallery “hopes to sell other works” of Johnny Depp in the near future, takes care to specify The Times.