Johnny Depp is selling a collection of silk-screen prints he has painted of public figures including Heath Ledger and Bob Marley through a London gallery for thousands of dollars.
Titled “Friends & Heroes II,” the entire four-piece collection, which comes signed by Depp, is available for £17,500 ($21,000) from Castle Fine Art and includes portraits of Ledger and Marley together with River Phoenix and Hunter S. Thompson.
The portraits were also made available individually for $5,400 each when they first went on sale two weeks ago but all 780 prints have now sold out.
“Each image is an intimate reflection of their character in Johnny’s eyes; a portrayal of how they have revealed themselves to him,” reads the description on Castle Fine Art’s website. “Working from photographic references, each image has been stripped back to a simpler and iconic portrayal of the subject, which Johnny has then developed and energised with his characteristic freehand flourishes.”
Last year another collection of Depp’s signed prints, titled “Friends & Heroes,” which included Keith Richards, Al Pacino, Bob Dylan and Elizabeth Taylor, sold out when it went on sale for $4,740 a-piece.
Under his artist profile on the gallery’s site, it states that Depp was born in Kentucky, educated at Miramar High School in Florida and has won numerous awards including a People’s Choice Award for Favourite Movie Icon and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
“As an actor, Depp is known for his depth of research and commitment to characterisation,” his biography on the site reads. “He is an innate student of human behaviour; studying, translating, and harnessing qualities he sees in others to weave into the tapestry of the persona he is creating. This has resulted in laser sharp powers of observation, and the ability to identify and utilise the subtlest nuance.”
“He has wielded this skill in his visual art, using it to create a true authenticity and depth in the portraits of those who have become the most important figures in his life, those who have altered the course of his life, providing influence and inspiration. A closer look at his portraiture reveals the qualities that Depp felt his subjects revealed most keenly to him, or are his strongest points of recall when revisiting times shared and memories made.”
Depp is currently trying to get his acting career back on track following two high-profile legal battles with his ex-wife Amber Heard, after she publicly accused him of domestic abuse. After losing a libel battle in the U.K. against British tabloid The Sun, who called him a “wife beater” in a column, he won a second libel trial against Heard in Virginia last year.
Depp is also set to direct his first film, a biopic of Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani, in a quarter of a century, which Al Pacino is producing.
