Johnny Depp Attempt To Become An Artist Falls Flat

If you live in New York or can make a quick trip, it’s easy enough to judge Johnny Depp’s turn as an artist for yourself. His exhibition opened last Friday on West 27th Street under the rather dubious name “A Bunch of Stuff.”

The art critics who visited the space have mostly derided the actor’s paintings as boring and derivative, but in many ways, that’s not the point…after all, the Hollywood legend is clearly trying to appeal to his most hardcore fans rather than to the art snobs of the world.

The bulk of Johnny Depp’s gallery reveals him to be a somewhat abstract artist, someone who is more interested in capturing the vibes of various subjects (including himself) rather than realistically capturing every line. Those works may be derivative, but they at least show some compositional skill.

However, what raised some critics’ eyebrows were the installations that looked less like art and more like the kind of wine mom home decor that we can only pray that nobody is buying unironically.

Sometimes, these products of Johnny Depp’s artist era are homages to his own heroes…for example, the famous quote “Buy the ticket, take the ride” from Hunter S. Thompson (Depp starred in the film adaptations of Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Rum Diary) is on display.

However, most of what is available seems like empty phrases for empty people, making it doubly shocking that this comprises so much of the gallery. As the New York Post reports, “Many of the actor’s works are simply framed phrases, like motivational posters meant for potheads.”

To nobody’s great surprise, the main theme of the art gallery seems to be for fans to stroke the ego of Johnny Depp himself and feed the endless needs of the artist.

This is clear from Depp’s self-portraits from different films, the animated film of his paintings that he narrates, and even the gift shop’s signature product: a recreation of his dog that died back in 2009.

Should you feel moved to do so, you can let the Pirates of the Caribbean star know how you feel by leaving a message on the wall, which has been transformed into one giant guest book.

On the sliding scale of Johnny Depp’s offenses, being a bad artist is definitely on the minor end.

Still, for those who hate seeing established celebrities try to bloviate their way into different fields, there is something frustrating about seeing Depp releasing such milquetoast art into the world.

However, this move undeniably has some Jack Sparrow swagger to it…after all, Depp might be the worst artist we’ve ever heard of, but we have heard of him.

Source: New York Post