Tuesday, December 07, 2010

Curio: Paintings of a Tourist

Alexa from Pop Elegantiarum here with your weekly art break.

The media machine just can't get enough of the dueling fabulosity of Jolie and Depp in The Tourist. (What was it like basking in each other's glow? Will they out-charisma each other?) Of course we all know about the impressive extracurriculars of St. Angelina, but Depp has a few of his own. Most people are aware that he came to acting to make some cash to support his guitar habit, but what I find impressive is his artwork. As he told Vanity Fair in 2009, "What I love to do is paint people's faces, y'know, their eyes. Because you want to find that emotion, see what's going on behind their eyes."


He paints portraits of many of his idols with the strokes of a friendlier Francis Bacon. And he reserves a sunnier, illustrative style for the portraits he paints of his family. Here are some standouts.

Marlon Brando



Julian Schnabel


Boot (with Tim Burton and Edward Scissorhands)


Vanessa Paradis

4 comments:

NATHANIEL R said...

sigh. i love paint drippings in paintings (Brando)

also, is it just me or does the vanessa paradis look a bit like a Klimt. Or influenced by rather.

Alexa said...

Yeah, I think that one is Klimt-ey! Ah, the romance of it all.

cici said...

THey're all little amalgamations of other artistic styles....kind of like his characters.

NATHANIEL R said...

cici -- great point actually.