Background

Billy Apple (born Barrie Bates) was born on December 31, 1935 in Auckland, New Zealand.

Education

Barrie Bates left secondary school with no qualifications and took a job as an assistant to a paint manufacturer in 1951. Bates attended evening classes at Elam School of Fine Arts, where he met Robert Ellis, a graduate of the Royal College of Art in London.

In 1959, he left New Zealand on a National Art Gallery scholarship. He studied at the Royal College of Art, London, from 1959 until 1962, where he was considered one of the 'Young Contemporaries’ alongside David Hockney and Derek Boshier.

During his time at the Royal College of Art, Barrie Bates exhibited frequently at the College in the Young Contemporaries and Young Commonwealth Artists exhibitions along with Frank Bowling, Jonathan Kingdon, Jan Bensemann and Jerry Pethick.

Upon graduating in 1962 Bates began exhibiting under the pseudonym Billy Apple - redefining himself as a trademarked brand.

Career

Billy Apple had his first solo show "Apple Sees Red: Live Stills" in 1963 in London. He moved to New York in 1964: he progressed his artistic career and also found work in various advertising agencies.

A pivotal event was the 1964 exhibit "The American Supermarket", a show held in Paul Bianchini's Upper East Side gallery. The show was presented as a typical small supermarket environment, except that everything in it - the produce, canned goods, meat, posters on the wall - was created by such prominent pop artists of the time as Billy Apple, Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, Tom Wesselmann, Jasper Johns, Mary Inman, James Rosenquist and Robert Watts.

Exploring new consumer technologies, he was a pioneer in the use of Neon and used a Xerox machine. This is seen in the 1965 exhibitions Apples to Xerox and Neon Rainbows, both at The Bianchini Gallery. Then in 1967, the exhibition Unidentified Fluorescent Objects (UFOs), which showed a collection of neon light sculptures, was held at the Howard Wise Gallery, a forerunner of the Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI).

In 1969, the artist opened Apple at 161 West 23rd Street, one of the six not-for-profit spaces that established New York’s Conceptual Art movement.

Apple's 'folksy' first name and vegetative surname were irrevocably merged with his artist's body (and new persona) to become an artwork. All activities undertaken by that body - such as cleaning windows or vacuuming the floor - and its by-products - like nasal mucus, semen, earwax or faeces - in the early 1970s became artworks too. No matter how difficult, they were works that could eventually be sold through dealers and galleries.

In 1974, Apple's first major survey exhibition was held at the Serpentine Gallery in London: From Barrie Bates to Billy Apple (temporarily shut down due to complaints of indecency).

During the 1980s, Apple's practice focused on the economics of the art world. In 1983 he produced a solid gold apple for the former Auckland Coin & Bullion Exchange Director - a significant precursor to Damien Hirst's 2007 diamond skull For the Love of God. In 2001 Apple created a company, "Billy Apple Ltd" in anticipation of securing licensing of the marketing rights over this new apple. By 2007 Billy Apple® was a registered brand.

Billy Apple returned to New Zealand, permanently in 1990 and currently lives in Auckland. His recent exhibitions include the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, International Pop, touring to Dallas Museum of Art and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2015-2016, and a retrospective at the Auckland Art Gallery, Billy Apple, The Artist has to live like everybody else, 2015.

Achievements

• Billy Apple’s work is largely associated with Pop Art and the conceptualism of the late 1960s and 1970s. He is well-known for his first major survey exhibition "From Barrie Bates to Billy Apple", held at the Serpentine Gallery in London in 1974.
  
  Besides, in 2008, Apple was the subject of a feature-length documentary called "Being Billy Apple". Produced by Spacific Films and directed by award-winning filmmaker, Leanne Pooley, the documentary tells the story of Billy Apple's life from his POP period through his involvement with the conceptual art movement in New York during the 1970s to his current "horticultural/art" Apple endeavours.
  
  In addition, Billy Apple is the recipient of the award of the Icons 2018 conference.

Works

More photos

• painting

  • Cut

  • Rainbow with Waterfall

  • As Good as Gold

    1992

  • Bartered

  • A for Apple

  • The Presidential Suite. JFK

  • The Ship, Brighton Beach, Sussex, England

  • The Man in the Hathaway Suit 1-4

  • Rainbow

  • Portrait of the Artist in Drip Dry Suit

  • The Presidential Suite.The Mighty Landslide

  • A New York Crop

  • Big Mouth

  • Atlanta

  • Neon Signature (Red)

  • Vertical Progressive

  • Art Declared Found Activity (Lathering, Alicante Spain, April 1960) 1

  • Homonym

  • Untitled (Rainbow)

  • 2 Minutes, 33 Seconds

  • Complimentary

    1990

  • From The Mike Wilson Collection

  • Untitled Diptych

  • Kite

  • Entertaiment

    1991

  • I dreamed I went to blazes in my Maidenform Bra (red)

  • A union, Jack! Young Commonwealth Artists

  • Self Portrait

  • The Presidential Suite. To a Future Historian

  • Red Apple

  • Photo of Billy Apple

  • The Ship, Brighton Beach, Sussex, England

  • Waipero Swamp Walk

  • For Sale

  • Ship in a Bottle

  • The Presidential Suite. Johnson & Humphrey at L.B.J. Barbecue

  • Paid: The artist has to live like everybody else

  • Relation of Aesthetic Choice to Life Activity (Function of the Subject)

  • Join our union, Jack! Young Commonwealth Artists

  • A Piece of the Pie

  • I dreamed I went to blazes in my Maidenform Bra (pink)

  • Art Declared Found Activity (Lathering, Alicante Spain, April 1960)

  • 2 Minutes 33 Seconds (Red)

  • Billy Apple TM

  • Sold

  • The Ship, Brighton Beach, Sussex, England

  • Numbered and Signed

Views

The artist has a long-standing interest and involvement in motor racing, which was acknowledged with the inclusion of two vehicles from his own collection in the 1991 As Good as Gold survey, as well as in the accompanying publication.

Connections

colleague:

David Hockney

colleague:

Derek Boshier

colleague:

Frank Bowling

colleague:

Pauline Boty

colleague:

Andy Warhol

The 1964 exhibit "The American Supermarket" was created by such prominent pop artists of the time as Billy Apple, Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, Tom Wesselmann, and others.