The three godfathers of gonzo at Aspen Collective | Arts & Entertainment

The artwork of Johnny Depp, Ralph Steadman and Hunter S. Thompson converge at Aspen Collective when the exhibit “Fear and Loathing” opens on Saturday.

The title of the show refers to Thompson’s book “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” a masterpiece of gonzo literature, which was a subgenre of the New Journalism movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s in which the writer plays a central role and is a participant in the events of the narrative. Other notable authors from the genre included Tom Wolfe and Truman Capote.

“There’s often a big misunderstanding of what gonzo means,” said Matthew Moseley, author of “Dear Dr. Thompson: Felony murder, Hunter S. Thompson and the Last Gonzo Campaign.” “A lot of people think it means just being crazy, but gonzo means being a participant in the events around you. That’s what Hunter did with his journalism. He inserted himself as an active participant in the stories he covered. Yes, he had a unique perspective and a way with words that really captured the counterculture, but it wasn’t the perspective as much as it was the point of view that defined the genre.”

“Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” first appeared as a two-part story in Rolling Stone magazine in November 1971, accompanied by illustrations by Steadman.

Thompson expanded the piece into the book “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream,” which was published in July 1972 by Random House. The original hardcover edition included additional illustrations by Steadman.

Depp entered the “Fear and Loathing” universe in 1998 when he portrayed Thompson in the film version of “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” which was directed by Monty Python’s Terry Gilliam (Depp spent months living in Thompson’s basement in Woody Creek in preparation of portraying Thompson on screen).

The Aspen Collective show brings together the three main creative forces behind the “Fear and Loathing” legacy for the first time.

Six pieces of Thompson’s “gunshot art” are in the show; there are four original illustrations by Steadman; and Depp has six works being shown. It is only the second time that Depp’s artwork has been exhibited publicly.

Depp has been making art since he was a child. His extensive body of work includes over 700 catalogued pieces.

According to Aspen Collective’s website, “Depp’s work is defined by spontaneity, texture, and his instinctive approach to materials, often working with whatever medium is at hand. While exploring themes of human nature, he weaves in the dark humor and satirical edge synonymous with his persona.”

Of the six Depp pieces in the “Fear and Loathing” show, one is a custom hand-illustrated portrait of Thompson and one was created with Steadman in his studio in England.

“Aspen Collective is excited to display the creative genius of Johnny Depp alongside his friends and artistic heroes Ralph Steadman and Hunter S. Thompson,” said D.J. Watkins, owner and curator of Aspen Collective. “Viewing all the artworks in the ‘Fear and Loathing’ exhibition, it’s evident how their friendships and history influenced each other’s artistic style.”

Watkins has been collecting, exhibiting and dealing gonzo art for over a decade at his Fat City Gallery at 415 E. Hyman Ave. He is the largest dealer of Steadman’s work and he also represents Thomas W. Benton, who was a close collaborator of Thompson’s. The two created some of Aspen’s most recognizable art from the late ’60s and early ’70s, including the “Hunter S. Thompson for Sheriff” poster. The image of the iconic two-thumbed fist holding a peyote button appears in several of Benton’s works, one of which is on display in the exhibit, with bullet holes and a signature contributed by Thompson.

The Aspen Collective show features art that represents the various stages of the “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” life cycle. There are embryonic sketches Steadman made for the Rolling Stone article, a copy of the 1971 Rolling Stone magazine itself, original Steadman illustrations that appeared in the magazine and in the book, a first edition of “Fear in Loathing in Las Vegas” with a bullet hole in it (when asked for an autograph, Thompson would shoot a bullet through the artifact as a de facto autograph) and a movie poster with a shotgun blast through it.

United in life, art, death and legend

The bond between Steadman, Thompson and Depp not only transcended magazines, books, movies and now art exhibits, they were also the central characters in one of the most unique, audacious and spectacular funerals of the 21st century.

The planning of said funeral dates back to the 1978 BBC documentary “Fear and Loathing on the Road to Hollywood.” There is a scene in the film where Thompson and Steadman discuss the idea that should Thompson meet his demise his remains should be shot out of a cannon at his Owl Farm Ranch in Woody Creek.

“How about some 100-foot upright stainless steel tubes gathered into one bunch, and on top there’ll be the fist of gonzo,” Steadman suggested to Thompson in the film. 

“Two thumbs! Always two thumbs!” Thompson responded.

Thompson expanded on Steadman’s vision, saying that he wanted a 150-foot cannon built in his backyard to shoot his ashes five 500 feet into the air and explode over his ranch at Owl Farm. In the film, Thompson expressed doubt that his wishes would ever come true.

But Thompson had not yet met Johnny Depp. That would not happen until 1994 when the actor and Kate Moss were sitting in the Woody Creek Tavern and Thompson entered the bar like a whirling dervish on amphetamines.

“Suddenly I see the door spring open, and I see sparks,” Depp recalled in a Newsweek Magazine article in 2011. “I realized there was a large-ish, three-foot cattle prod and a taser gun, and the sea began to part — people were leaping and hurling themselves out of the path of the mayhem that was approaching — and I heard the voice first say, ‘Out of my way, you bastards!’ He was using them as ‘just-in-case weapons,’ but it was a very economical way for him to clear the path. He made the Red Sea part, arrived at my table, and said, ‘How are you? My name is Hunter.’”

That interaction was the beginning of a friendship that would last for the rest of Thompson’s life, which ended when he died of a self-inflicted gunshot at his home in Woody Creek on Feb. 20, 2005.

One of the biggest actors in the world at the time, Depp took it upon himself to fulfill Thompson’s wishes to have his ashes shot out of a cannon in Woody Creek. Depp spent upwards of $3 million to build the gonzo cannon, emblazoned with the infamous gonzo fist with two thumbs.

When the British magazine The Guardian asked Steadman in a March 2005 article about the significance of the two thumbs on the fist, Steadman responded, “God knows why. It was just gonzo. You can’t explain it any more than you can explain why certain phenomena happen in the world.”

Over 300 people gathered in Woody Creek to witness Thompson’s blast off into eternity on Aug. 20, 2005.

“Johnny pulling off Hunter’s funeral wishes was the biggest tribute Johnny could have made to the legacy of the essence of gonzo,” Moseley said. “He wanted to honor Hunter and make a statement that gonzo was one of the great American literary movements and solidify Hunter as one of its great authors.

“It was also a testimony that it was more than just an ordinary friendship they shared. Johnny once told me that when he played a character, he could just shake it off after the shooting ended and put it away but that when he played Hunter in ‘Fear and Loathing,’ Hunter inhabited his soul.”

Depp told Newsweek that the funeral was a fitting tribute to Thompson. 

“I think Hunter knew that I was the only one dumb enough to take it on,” he said. “I didn’t light it, but it was a beautiful and surreal ballet of lights and explosions. It was perfect. Imagine, Hunter Thompson ends his life as a combination of ashes and gunpowder in a giant bullet. It was pretty symmetrical. 

“Hunter knew I worshiped him and I know that he loved me, so he may have been part father figure, part mentor, but I’d say the closest thing is brothers. We were like brothers.”

When Watkins was asked if the “Fear and Loathing” show is the most important show of his career, he replied, “This show is kind of the magnum opus of my work to catalog this particular slice of the counterculture that Hunter, Ralph and Johnny represent. This show features museum worthy art and really ties together these three godfathers of gonzo.”