According to Deadline, Johnny Depp's first major UK exhibition opened October 13 at Halcyon Gallery on New Bond Street, with every work listed as Price On Application.
The redemption arc got a New Bond Street address. Halcyon has signed Depp as a represented artist, and the gallery's own copy does the laundering. See the work "on its own terms," which is gallery speak for forget everything you know, and then pay whatever we decide.
The logistics are the real story. The Halcyon page does not let you walk in and look. It has a Register Your Interest form and an appointment form, with fields for name, email, phone, country and postcode. A show where the work is Price On Application and the viewing is by appointment is not really a show. It is a members club with a receptionist.
The work itself is a two decade visual diary. Tangled flowers, psychological portraits, self portraits, alter egos, and the first sculpture, The Bunnyman, a half rabbit guardian figure carrying a sword of truth that his young son first drew. Halcyon's president calls Depp a true Renaissance man, which is the art market's way of saying the rebrand has been running for twenty years and here is the next floor.
YOUR TURN: The show runs through November 15. How many Register Your Interest forms would you fill out for an exhibition that will never print a price?
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