by Johnny Depp is currently celebrating a comeback with a new film – he staged modes, three days on the wings of madness – and now a art exhibition in the Castle Fine Art in the South Molton Street.
Technically, it is technically only two pieces that can be bought as prints, but is reinforced in the gallery with further works by the actor. The two main pictures were taken in the early 2000s when he lived in southern France with his wife Vanessa Paradis and her children Jack and Lily-Rose in Le Hameau. A time that clearly has some moving memories of Depp, a Halcyon time before his later relationship with Amber Heard and the subsequent court drama.
The first piece in Let the Light in is called rose. A rose is a rose. Every year on Valentine’s Day he would paint a rose for his young daughter Lily-Rose, and this has a certain meaningful vibration that swells with the darkness under his delicacy. A sweet gesture that has weight behind it; Parental concern and protection.
The other piece is a self -portrait from the same era, which represents Depp in an abstract form, where his eyes are not visible behind his glasses. It is almost a non -portrait in which the painter hides, even if he portrays himself. He means it, added the light and commented on the piece: “I was lucky to understand – listen, learn things through different artists – the only thing you can really do is to add the light to what is there.” But here he does this where the view tries to cover the light.
They are presented almost exactly here and although they are not big revelations in the soul of Depp, they show the softness and even shyness that exists beyond his wild man. According to Frankie Washington, the artist program manager at Castle Fine Art, Depp has an instinctive compulsion towards art, with his painting of a refuge and an escape from “what he calls” the noise “of recent years.
It would be interesting to see what his current art looks like after the past few years, but to present his older work in this way, probably says everything. A longing for innocent times that go hand in hand with children.
Elsewhere we see other pieces from this time. The Bunnyman Genesis (2023) is a Donnie Darko-Alike pictures that refers to a Bunnyman figure who had experienced both Depp and his son Jack in recurring dreams. In Tarot (2024), the piece that the Empress paid tribute to Paradis paid tribute. These are vulnerabilities that use Rizla papers, color explosions and a certain lynchic, annoying strangeness. These feel like good and protective moments in time, but it is also tempting to view them as warnings of the future or for themselves, but it may only be a sign that the productive creative periods can often come with the most defined house life. Depp fans will find a lot to think.
Let the light be available in 8 a.m. on July 18, 2025 over www.castlefineart.com And at Castle Fine Art’s 38 galleries across the country.
