Lying just off Leicester Square, White Space is the ideal setting for a Ralph Steadman exhibition. With its creamy expanses of wall the venue cries out for a few black marks, which are everywhere in the form of his trademark ink blots. The chance to view his work like this is a privilege of sorts – unlike a lot of infamous artists Steadman tends to hang on to the originals and the prospect of viewing them large as life in front of you is one to be seized.
As with any art you are accustomed to seeing on book covers or postcards it’s the little details that strike you up close, from a scribbled backdrop to a smeared Polaroid. It’s rich pickings for those wanting more after watching the documentary FOR NO GOOD REASON, showing this week on Sky Atlantic, the hosts of this event. Like its subject it’s an unusual film, showcasing the unlikely pairing of Steadman and one of his biggest admirers Johnny Depp.
The presence of Steadman himself, here to take part in a Q & A, doesn’t so much sweeten the deal as encase it in fudge. We’re even served bottled beer with a label of his design. Mingling amongst old friends, as well as the arty types and media vultures (myself included), he is to be found in the main display area, dominated by a hugely impressive screen set up by the documentary’s director Charlie Paul. Positioning a bird’s eye camera over Steadman’s work bench we are treated to some spectacular time lapse sequences, with such sights as George W Bush’s face atrophying into swirls of paint or a demon-faced streak flying over a cityscape. The action is reflected on the surface of a large white piano, an unusually decadent addition for singer/songwriter Ed Harcourt to perform on later.
Ralph is well-liked and on the basis of this appearance you can see why. Warm, honest, unpretentious but cutting he is a welcome presence in a location that has no doubt seen its share of egomaniacs. Even the waiters look happy. The gathering takes some time to compose itself, chattering over his anecdotes, a fact which amuses the man of the hour. The Q&A turns out to be a live interview by The Daily Telegraph’s Neil Midgley, and though there are probably a few in the audience who want to ask questions, Ralph’s insights are no less fascinating.
Joined by Paul, Midgley begins by asking Steadman about his influences, from Francis Bacon to Picasso.
Neil Midgley: Out of all those influences, who has been the biggest on your career?
Ralph Steadman: Picasso…. in 1967, he did a series of etchings… He called it 347 Street and it took him five months to do. So in 1988 I actually decided to do a 347 Street of my own. I did 400, and I did them in three months… I also did them on graph paper so that people could distinguish them from the originals.
NM: Your art down the years has been often a commentary on the present, a prediction hopefully for the future… you’ve been very political… What’s it been like doing a retrospective on film, what’s it like looking back not forward?
RS: He (the director) was doing it for fifteen-odd years, I think twenty-five years actually… At one time I thought he was a vole… There’s a lot of animals in our garden… He might’ve been one of them, he had a camera… Not only one camera but he had sixty-four cameras, he was bringing different ones every time into the valley… Polluting the valley with cameras, all over the place, wherever I went, I couldn’t even go for a wee.
NM: So Charlie, is that how you see it, are you a woodland animal in Ralph’s estate?
Charlie Paul: Yes… It was a matter of just turning up with a camera and catching Ralph in his natural condition in the studio, painting away… So as you can imagine there was a lot of collecting information and scraping out the stories as far as Ralph’s concerned.
NM: As well as Ralph’s influences, a lot of fans of Ralph’s are in the film… Terry Gilliam, Richard E Grant, but particularly Johnny Depp, who is effectively the journalist making the film, how did that come about?
CP: I needed somebody to play the role of someone in Ralph’s studio… We always knew Johnny was around and (they) go back many years and so it was a matter of arranging the right time for Johnny and Ralph to be together in the studio and for me to take a little back seat there and just watch the two get on, and their chemistry in the studio was ideal for the tour that Ralph put Johnny through. It was just the ideal partnership as far as I was concerned for the film.
NM: Ralph, how did you get to know Johnny Depp?
RS: I read a book about him recently, by chance, I found it in Halifax… That’s how I found this thing, I’m trying to protect Johnny Depp. And he has a friend who looks after his different affairs… He married again, he had a son and in Kentucky they’ve got this peculiar thing called “The Sons Of The Kentucky Pioneers” and it’s a crazy thing cos they haven’t got royalty you see… And Johnny Depp’s father was John Christopher Depp I…and Johnny Depp is John Christopher Depp II… A lot of people may not know that… And the mother wanted to call (his son) John Christopher Depp III. And he said no. So he’s got a son called Jack Depp… That’s what I like about Johnny Depp, he has consideration for others… When he came to the studio he was kind of flabbergasted at parts sometimes but he was so nice about everything… He’s got a magnetism that is extraordinary… And he’s not an art critic.
NM: While the film was being made, I think 2005 or thereabouts, was when Hunter S Thompson committed suicide…
RS: He said to me… “I feel real trapped in this life Ralph… I could commit suicide at any moment.” That’s what he said, and I knew he’d do it someday. I didn’t know when. It’s that journey. “I always knew one day I would make this journey but I did not know yesterday it would be today.” That’s the phrase. Now, he was gonna do it… And he did it on the phone, talking to Anita his wife, who was at the health club. And he put the gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger as he was talking… And the bullet hole is through the cooker hood in the kitchen at Owl Farm, which kind is of interesting and perverse and strange… I think it’s a pity.
NM: What effect did that have on you as such a long time collaborator?
RS: Well in a way a show was over, you know? And I decided from then on, for the next six years after that… I took a sheet of paper on that date on that time every year, put it on the board and went (makes striking motion) Whap! Let it dry and signed it and dated it… I went on like that… And then I decided it was time to stop doing that because that can become an obsession… so I’ve got those six sheets of paper with that blot and splatter, which could have been blood but it was ink. You can’t buy blood in bottles, you know that?
NM: Bringing you right up to date Ralph, can I tempt you to talk about modern authority figures, are you still as angry as you once were with, say, people like, David Cameron or Nigel Farage…
RS: David Camshaft would be a good name for him… You know it would be really good to have a leader named David Camshaft! (makes punching gesture) He’s coming in with a thrust and a right and a left… Cameron, he’s a bubbleface… I’ve done the cover of The Big Issue and I’ve done a thing called ‘Another Fine Mess’, and it is a fine mess because it shows the whole thing with the British Isles and the 1914 … (points) “UKIP and your country needs you”…
NM: So you’re not a fan of Nigel Farage either?
RS: No, I’ve done a drawing of Farage called ‘Gutter Cartoon’.
NM: At one point in the Eighties you said you were going to stop drawing politicians but now you’re back can we expect many more?
RS: I don’t know. The Statesman asked me to do things, I did one thing… for the editor of the Mail which was used last year…
NM: Well you heard it here first… Ralph Steadman in league with Paul Dacre!
FOR NO GOOD REASON is showing tonight on Sky Atlantic. Have a read of our review here.
