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Billy Apple, For Sale, 1961
Letterpress on canvas |
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Type: exhibition
Date: May 30, 2009 - September 13, 2009
Location: Witte de With |
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Witte de With, Center for Contemporary Art, is proud to present the major solo exhibition of Billy Apple®, comprising two parts, A History of the Brand (31 May – 13 September) and Revealed/Concealed (26 June – 13 September). In addition to this major survey, Witte de With will present a new commission in public space by the artist, and a monographic publication titled Billy Apple® as part of Witte de With Publishers’ ongoing Sourcebook series.
The artist Billy Apple® was created in 1962, when the New Zealand-born Barrie Bates changed his name, following his graduation from 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 then 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, Billy Apple® was working in both New Zealand and New York, and in 1990 he returned to Auckland, where he continues to work and exhibit internationally.
A History of the Brand: 1962-2009
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.
Long before the likes of Gilbert & George began their life-long intertwining of art and life, and before Andy Warhol’s self-appointment as the icon of Pop Art, Billy Apple embarked upon an artistic project that has shaped his practice for five decades. As Christina Barton writes, he has “spent much of his career creating and refining his ‘brand’ as an artistic manoeuvre geared to test the boundaries of art, examine the mechanisms that construct the artist as subject, and expose the value systems in which he and his works are mired”. The culmination of Billy Apple®’s gradual transformation from an individual artist into a brand occurred in 2008, when he succeeded in registering his name as a trademark.
Curated by Zoë Gray & Nicolaus Schafhausen
Events
Saturday 30 May 2009
5 – 8 p.m.: Opening A History of the Brand
5 p.m.: Panel discussion “The Artist Has to Live Like Everybody Else” with Billy Apple®, Jan Mot (gallerist, Brussels), Olav Velthuis (writer, Amsterdam), moderated by Nicolaus Schafhausen (curator, director of Witte de With).
Thursday 25 June
5- 8 p.m.: Opening Revealed/Concealed
5 p.m.: Guided tour of the exhibition by Christina Barton (Director of Adam Art Gallery, Wellington) and Wystan Curnow (Professor, University of Auckland)
7 p.m.: Billy Apple® in conversation with David Elliott (artistic director, 17th Sydney Biennial)
Event for and by young people
It’s a new brand world
11-13 September 2009
More information to follow.
Publication
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
Work in public space
The two-part exhibition extends into public space with a billboard commission, created in collaboration with Sculpture International Rotterdam. These two billboards will see Billy Apple®’s designs installed on a large scale, inserting themselves into the visual fabric of the city.
Titles and locations:
The Artist Has To Live Like Everybody Else (c)
Billy Apple, 1985
location: Opposite Centraal Station Rotterdam, on the corner of Weena and Kruisplein
From the Sculpture International Rotterdam Collection
Billy Apple®, 2009
location: On the corner of Schiedamse Vest and Schilderstraat, on the Herenplaats/MEE Rotterdam building
Click here for map (jpg).
Billy Apple is supported by Sculpture International Rotterdam and Creative New Zealand.
 
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opening hours: Tuesday - Sunday, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.
location: Witte de Withstraat 50, 3012 BR Rotterdam
phone: +31 (0) 10 4110144
fax: +31 (0) 10 4117924
e-mail: info@wdw.nl
web: www.wdw.nl
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