Johnny Depp

JD: ‘Art came to me before music and film. Ever since I can remember, it's always been about putting pencil to a piece of paper or some surface. A lot of walls when I was a child. So I was always kind of trying to escape into these little drawings and everything. So that that's been in my life ever since I can remember. Then of course, music came into my life and completely flipped the world for me. And then cinema, somehow, by accident.’

Until recently, Depp reserved his visual art for his family and closest friends, though art has long played a therapeutic role in his life. Journalling and drawing provided a consistent haven, a world of his own amongst a childhood of flux and upheaval. As Depp grew up and spent more time on the road, on sets and in hotel rooms, art remained a constant companion and mode of escape. Depp’s use of non-traditional materials – hotel notebooks, Rizla paper, tea boxes, newspaper clippings – continues to reflect this everyday art practice, utilising whichever tools, surfaces or materials he has available to him to satisfy his creative impulses.

JD: ‘When Lily-Rose was a little kiddie, I’d paint her a rose every Valentines Day. On Mother’s Day I’d paint Vanessa some roses. You don’t really know where it’s going to go, it’s all up to chance.’

For Depp, flowers are the most universal symbols of the value of human connection. Visually, the floral artworks reflect Depp’s encounters with Italian art and architecture, faded frescoes, cracked marble, weathered walls and sun-worn facades. These tonal shifts and layered surfaces speak to the depth of human experience and history. From Renaissance symbolism and Vanitas still life, to impressionist gardens and O’Keeffe’s powerful explorations of colour and form, flowers have long embodied the dichotomies of transience and permanence that pertain to human experience.

The motif of the rose has always been a symbol of love and optimism for the artist. The flower functions as a kind of ‘tangential portrait’ of his daughter Lily-Rose. Replete with symbolism, the simple rose treads a fine line between the timeless and the ephemeral, the enduring and the fragile. The associations with beauty and devotion allow Depp’s paintings of roses to operate simultaneously as a manifestation of fatherly affection and a universal emblem of love. By concealing his daughter’s identity with a symbol, Depp adds a layer of privacy to this personal tribute.

JD: ‘They’re all still there, which on some level can’t be the healthiest thing in the world. I always picture it as this chest of drawers in your body – Ed Wood is in one, the Hatter is in another, Scissorhands is in another. They’re still very close to the surface.’

Self-portraiture forms a recurring strand within Depp’s wider artistic output. He has returned to his own appearance as a subject across multiple works and a variety of media, serving as a familiar and yet uniquely inconsistent subject. Depp’s self-image is at once unwavering, yet mercurial in its form. In some images there is certainty we are witnessing the ‘real’ Depp at specific moments in his life, while at other times we are presented with Depp as a character – Raoul Duke, John Dillinger or Jack Sparrow – stepping beyond the self via alter egos, often moving into the symbolic and the surreal. Depp explores identity through a cast of recurring figures, each becoming a stand-in for aspects of the artist’s personality, memory or personal history.

JD: ‘Antonin Artaud was, he was, he was kind of everything … pretty much anyone and everyone that I’ve admired, whether it be literature, whether it be cinema, whether it be poetry, whether it be art, you know, painting sculpting, … I’m drawn to the mad ones. I’m drawn to the ones who carry the pain, all the pain that they have accumulated…’

Both directly in the form of portraiture, or indirectly through his artistic approach, Depp’s art presents the cultural figures who have influenced his creative output, from the spontaneous prose of Jack Kerouac to the lyrics and vision of Bob Dylan or Antonin Artaud’s eccentric, multidisciplinary practice. Depp’s art sparks a dialogue with a range of art historical influences. His portraits often recall the figures of early-twentieth- century expressionists Amedeo Modigliani, Edvard Munch or Egon Schiele while, at other times, his bold simplification of form suggests Pop art, and his more instinctive and colourful mark-making channels the energy of the Neo-Expressionists.

JD: ‘The painting process evolves like a film … in time, it starts to tell you what it wants to be and then shows you who it wants to be. And that happens a lot with cinema, especially in the cutting room, if you've got enough information a film will actually tell you where it wants to go. Nine times out of ten, it was a totally unexpected, totally unpredictable way to go.’

Depp considers his art to be the purest form of who he is; his impulses, creative influences and innermost feelings play out across his artworks. His work reveals elements of his inner psychology and intimate family life, offering insights that had never been revealed before he made his artworks public. For Depp, an artist can approach disparate subjects and absorb external stylistic influences, but the work is ultimately inseparable from the artist themselves. Gesture and mark-making are crucial to the artistic process, so that each artwork conveys an emotional and personal resonance, away from natural representation. What connects Depp’s art is the inescapable presence of the artist himself. His works are personal records: of people admired, moments remembered, dreams revisited, and connections preserved.