Witte de With,
center for contemporary art
Witte de Withstraat 50
+31 (0)10 4110144
Rotterdam
Billy Apple®
A History of the Brand
May 31-September 13, 2009
Billy Apple®
Revealed/Concealed
26 June-13 September 2009
The artist Billy Apple® was born in 1962, when the New Zealand born Barrie Bates changed his name and created a new artistic persona, whilst still a student at London's Royal College of Art. Initially part of the generation of British pop artists, Billy Apple® moved to New York in 1964, where the same year he exhibited with Andy Warhol in the seminal American Supermarket exhibition and rapidly established himself as a key figure in the conceptual art scene. In 1969 he opened Apple, one of the first alternative spaces in New York. By the 80s Apple was working in both New Zealand and New York, and he returned to Auckland in 1990 where he continues to work and exhibit internationally.His exhibition in Witte de With's galleries will comprise two parts, opening four weeks apart.
Since changing his name, Billy Apple® has developed a body of work that records his gradual transformation from an individual artist into a brand. The culmination of this process occurred in 2008, when he succeeded in registering his name as a trademark. Occupying the 3rd floor of Witte de With, this exhibition will present works from Billy Apple®'s inception through to today, tracing a practice that has remained ahead of its time in analysing and incorporating the marketing of art. Drawing upon the language of advertising and finance, the works presented will include the timely series •Paid•, (1987) whose tag line reads: "The artist has to live like everybody else".
For Billy Apple®: Revealed / Concealed this project, Billy Apple® transforms Witte de With's 2nd floor, as part of a new commission that evokes his series of architectural interventions and his ongoing institutional critique. For example, in 1980, for his exhibition Censure at Leo Castelli Gallery, New York, Billy Apple® painted red the elements of the gallery that did not meet his exacting standards. Having corrected the imperfections of Witte de With's spaces, Billy Apple® will install a selection of related works.
The two-part exhibition extends into public space with a series of billboard commissions, created in collaboration with Sculpture International Rotterdam. These will see Billy Apple®'s designs installed on a large scale, inserting themselves into the visual fabric of the city. Together, this will be Billy Apple®'s biggest survey to date and is just the 2nd time he has exhibited in The Netherlands, following the group show Kunstlichtkunst, at the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, in 1966.
Curators of the exhibitions are Nicolaus Schafhausen and Zoë Gray.
The exhibitions will be accompanied by a Source Book, titled Billy Apple, published by Witte de With Publishers. This English-language monograph will include texts by Christina Barton (Senior Lecturer in Art History, and Director of Adam Art Gallery, Victoria University of Wellington) and Bénédicte Ramade (art critic, L'Oeil, Les Inrocktupibles, Paris), Michelle Menzies (American Field Scholar, PhD candidate at the University of Chicago), and William Wood (Assistant Professor, Art History Faculty, University of British Columbia, Vancouver). Released: September 2009. Price: 10 euro. ISBN: 978-90-73362-89-5.
Billy Apple, Join our union, Jack!, Poster for Young Commonwealth Artists 1962 exhibition, 1962, Offset lithograph on paper, Courtesy of the artist and Sue Crockford Gallery.
Billy Apple, From The Mike Wilson Collection, 1965/2006, Serigraph on paper, Courtesy of Mike Wilson.
