Johnny Depp Self-Portrait Limited Edition Follows Amber Heard Trauma

On Thursday 20 July, 5PM BST / 4PM GMT for just 13 days, celebrated and controversial actor Johnny Depp shared his Five self-portrait silkscreen and archival pigment color prints through the London gallery Castle Fine Art. Priced at around $1,950 each ($2750 when framed) and each individually hand-signed by Depp with an additional embossed stamp to confirm authenticity, $200 from each sale will go to the charity Mental Health America. The choice of charity is a testament to the challenges Depp faced in recent years during his defamation case against ex-wife Amber Heard. 13 days is because it’s his favorite number…he even has it tattooed on his arm.

Depp has quietly made art away from the public eye, sketching himself before the mirror even before he was an actor, but the choice to publicize this self-portrait is launched with the hope of inspiring others.

Depp began working on this specific project in 2021 as a pathway to healing, but renamed it “Five” in 2023, five years after the Heard’s article and subsequent legal proceedings. In an interview for the showcase, he simply calls this period “the madness”.

Along with his signature, the works include a special marking he calls ‘The Bunny Man,’ derived from a nightmare Depp’s son Jack had at the age of five. (Jack is now 21).

Here is the explanation per his NFT art organization, Never Fear Truth:

“The Bunny Man can be interpreted as a fearsome vision. But look closer, he can also be seen as an inseparable friend, even a shamanic warrior at the doorway between reality and imagination. Johnny sees him as powerfully standing with a sword of truth, guarding the heart, and delivering through all adversity where, above all, The Bunnyman becomes whoever he needs to be.

Johnny realised this iconic figure on a large canvas, and it has since come to symbolise both him and his work. As such it is being registered as a global trademark. Where The Bunny Man appears with Johnny’s initials it represents an additional guarantee of authenticity beyond his handwritten signature.”

Depp initially conceived ‘Five’ at friend Ralph Steadman’s studio, an artist who encouraged Depp to process his healing through creativity. As such, he drew inspiration from his 2015 Christian Dior fashion portrait for the fragrance Dior Sauvage, playing on the relationship between photography and hand, celebrity and intimacy.

The shoot was led by French creative director Jean-Baptiste Mondino, whose sense of mystery and intrigue inspired Depp. In the press release, Depp explained, “The great thing about shooting with Jean-Baptiste Mondino is he will never look at any of his photographs or any of his work where the subject’s eyes aren’t somewhere else, or you see something behind the eyes.”

Deep’s first public art show was Friends & Heroes, a Warholian portrait series featuring celebrity inspirations such as Bob Dylan, Elizabeth Taylor, Al Pacino, and Keith Richards. Debuted in 2022, he added Bob Marley, Health Ledger, River Phoenix and Hunter S. Thompson in February 2023. This too was limited edition at Castle Fine Art, who represent Bob Dylan’s works in a similarly accessible format across their 37 gallery locations and online at castlefineart.com.