Bob Marley Portraits Contribute To Multi-Million Dollar Haul For Johnny Depp
American actor Johnny Depp has explained that the portrait prints he crafted and sold of Bob Marley were done, because for him, the late Reggae icon was a world hero and a legend.
The Pirates Of The Caribbean actor’s new art collection, dubbed ‘Friends & Heroes II,’ featured a series of limited edition prints of Marley, writer Hunter S Thompson and actors Heath Ledger and River Phoenix, all of whom were either friends of his or an inspiration to him.
The signed four-piece collection was made available, through the UK’s leading art retailer Castle Fine Art Gallery in London, for £17,500 ($21,000), two Mondays ago. Prints of each piece were also made available individually for $5,400 each when they first went on sale, but all 780 have now sold out.
“Bob Marley, River Phoenix and Hunter S Thompson and Heath Ledger: All friends, all heroes. They said they did not have enough time on this earth. But the time they did have, their world, their heart, their emotions…,” Depp explained in a recent interview, which was shared on the Castle Fine Art Gallery’s YouTube channel.
“Bob Marley is a hero, a legend. Bob Marley’s words, if you take one song, just take the song War: ‘until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior, is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned, everywhere is war’. That’s one verse. And his expression of that rage for wanting peace so bad that he was able to perform that song war,” the Rasta tam-clad actor added.
“Then you go to the songs about living in Trench Town…his life…his every thought is in those songs.”
Marley actually took the lyrics of War quoted by Depp from a speech by Emperor Haile Selassie I, which was given on October 4, 1963, at the United Nations General Assembly. The Emperor’s speech was used as the first verse for the song, which was included in the Rastaman Vibration album, which Island Records released on April 30, 1976.
This is not the first time Depp has shown his appreciation for Bob Marley.
In April last year, he had blasted Marley’s Exodus from his vehicle, as he showed up for the 10th day of his court battle with his ex-wife Amber Heard in relation to a $50-million defamation suit against her in March 2019.
Exodus was the title track for Bob Marley and the Wailers’ 1977 album.
Recorded in London, Exodus was released in June that year, when Marley was 32 years old. It featured classics such as Jammin, Waiting in Vain, Natural Mystic, Three Little Birds, One Love/People Get Ready and Turn Your Lights Down Low.
As for Depp, the Daily Mail reported yesterday that he had “sold more than £4.5 million of paintings in only a few days last week”.
“Johnny Depp’s £4.5m daubings: How Pirates of the Caribbean actor, 59, made a fortune in just a few days by selling his limited edition prints of late stars – including Bob Marley and Heath Ledger – for £4,500 a pop,” the news outlet had captioned the post.
Castle Fine Art Gallery, in describing Depp’s artwork, notes that he worked from photographic references, with each image “stripped back to a simpler and iconic portrayal of the subject, which Johnny then developed and energised with his characteristic freehand flourishes.”
On February 23, Castle Fine Art noted on Instagram that Depp’s collection was a unique insight into the world of Hollywood from one of its biggest stars and told potential purchasers that “we anticipate this collection to sell out in just hours, so secure your piece whilst you can”.
According to the gallery, the first pieces from Depp’s Friends & Heroes collection, which was released in July 2022, had sold out in hours.
“There was so much interest in Johnny’s art debut that interest from collectors around the world crashed our website!” they noted.