Johnny Depp
Tarot | 2024

A lover of the supernatural, Depp has long incorporated tarot into his life, exploring the history behind this centuries-old tradition. As he’s reflected, “I've always been tremendously curious about tarot… and there's a great art to the cards”.

Using tarot as a vessel for storytelling, Depp riffs on the established card format; within numbered black frames, his figures and creatures carry new meanings. He has compared this approach to the ways in which Beat writers, such as Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs, would deconstruct sentences to build new ones in their ‘cut up’ series.

Depp also joins a rich tradition of artists playing with tarot in their studios. Leading Surrealist Salvador Dalí spent a decade designing his dreamlike pack, whilst the Mexican painter Leonora Carrington, imagined her deck with mythological creatures.

Featured Art: ‘The Emperor’ by Johnny Depp. A hand-signed silkscreen limited edition embellished with gold leaf.

By assimilating imagery from tarot decks, Depp has been able to reflect on different chapters in his own personal journey. Across the artworks he conjures up themes of parenthood, love, relationships and his career, linked by the same thread: “I can see or feel there is a strange connection… it's like with characters that I've played, from Whitey Bulger, to Scissorhands to the Mad Hatter, there is some invisible line that attaches all of them.” Depp sees that these four tarot-inspired artworks could in fact “represent in a way, a reading for me that I lived, but also activating all the characters that I’ve played throughout my life”.

As with the traditional deck, Depp hopes that collectors will be able to form their own meanings and interpretations from his tarot-inspired artworks which can be read individually or as a set of four. Illuminated and gilded with decorative gold leaf, Depp continues his evolution as an artist.

Featured Art: ‘Strength' by Johnny Depp. A hand-signed silkscreen limited edition embellished with gold leaf.

For actor and musician, Johnny Depp, there’s always been art. An imaginative storyteller, Johnny Depp has long found freedom through art. His artistic restlessness and exploration know no bounds, and he has consciously embarked upon a renaissance that allows his life to be filled with that which fulfils him. Johnny’s very fluent, expressive style is in the vein of the artists we recognise as Neo-Expressionists.

Depp’s debut with Castle Fine Art was released in July 2022. Friends & Heroes sold out in hours and there was so much interest in his art debut from collectors worldwide, that a second instalment in the series saw all the artworks selling out at equal speed.

In 2023, Depp’s deeply personal self-portrait 'Five' was available to collectors for only 13 days as a time-limited edition. December saw Castle Fine Art reveal a new artistic direction for Depp, with meaningful collection featuring a symbolic and legendary figure, The Bunnyman, a shared night-time vision between father and son. This year, Depp's new collection offers an insight into more personal stories interpreted through his artistic lens. See what the cards have in store for Johnny Depp's new collection soon.

Image credit: Elliot Nyman