Billy Apple, ONZM (born Barrie Bates in Auckland, New Zealand in 1935) is an artist whose work is associated with the New York and British schools of Pop Art in the 1960s and with the Conceptual Art movement in the 1970s. He collaborated with the likes of Andy Warhol and other pop artists. His work is part of the permanent collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (New Zealand), Auckland Art Gallery / Toi o Tamaki (New Zealand), the Christchurch Art Gallery / Te Puna o Waiwhetu (New Zealand) and the SMAK/Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (Ghent, Belgium).

Barrie Bates

Barrie Bates was born in Auckland, New Zealand in 1935. He 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. During his time at the Royal College of Art, Bates met several other artists who went on to become a new generation of pop artists; including David Hockney, Derek Boshier and Pauline Boty. He exhibited frequently during his time at the College in the Young Contemporaries and Young Commonwealth Artists exhibitions.

Billy Apple

In 1962 Bates conceived Billy Apple: he bleached his hair and eyebrows with Lady Clairol Instant Creme Whip and changed his name to Billy Apple. Apple had his first solo show in 1963 - Apple Sees Red: Live Stills - in London at Victor Musgrave's Gallery One.

Apple 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, etc. — was created by six prominent pop artists of the time, including Billy Apple, Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenberg, Tom Wesselman, Jasper Johns, Mary Inman, James Rosenquist and Robert Watts.

Apple was one of the artists who pioneered the use of neon in art works.. This is seen in the 1965 exhibitions Apples to Xerox and Neon Rainbows, both at The Bianchini Gallery. Then in 1967 at the Howard Wise Gallery, the exhibition Unidentified Flourecent Objects (UFOs) showed a collection of neon light scupltures.

In 1969 the artist established Apple, one of the first alternative spaces in New York at 161 West Twenty-third Street in order, as he stated, "to provide an independent and experimental alternative space for the presentation of [his] own work and the work of others." Initially the exhibition space was part of his own studio. During its four years Apple produced 35 works in the venue and hosted work by other artists including Geoff Hendricks, Mac Adams, Davi Det Hompson, Larry Miller and Jerry Vis. The space was considered both an exhibition space and a forum for art and discourse.

In 1974 Apples first major survey exhibition was held at the Serpentine Gallery in London: From Barrie Bates to Billy Apple. In 1975 Apple returned to New Zealand for the firt time in sixteen years. During the visit he embarked on a national exhibition tour with support from the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council. Apple was then invited back by the Arts Council for a tour over the summer of 1979-1980. The exhibition he toured was called The Given as an Art Political Statement. During each tour he exhibited in spaces throughout the country.

During the 1980s, Apple's practice focused on the economics of the art world. The exhibition Art for Sale at Peter Webb gallery in 1980 was made up of a series of art works that were actual receipts for the payment given to the artist. This work progressed on to a series called Transactions. Other important series of work that began in the 1980s include Golden Rectangle series, and From the Collection.

He returned to New Zealand, permanently in 1990 and currently lives in Auckland. In 1991 the Wellington City Art Gallery staged a decade survey of his work: As Good as Gold: Billy Apple Art Transactions 1981-1991. Negotiations are underway between Saatchi & Saatchi and the New Zealand horticulture research centre to develop and apple that could be named "Billy Apple". In 2091 Apple created a company, "Billy Apple Ltd" in anticipation of securing licensing of the marketing rights over this new apple.

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 endeavors.

In 2009 the Adam Art Gallery, Wellington staged the survey exhibition Billy Apple: New York 1969-1973, covering the activities undertaken by the artist in the not-for-profit gallery he ran from 161 West 23rd Street. Later in 2009 Witte de With Centre for Contemporary Art in Amsterdam presented a major exhibition in two parts; the first Billy Apple: A History of the Brand, surveys the artist's entire practice from inception as his own brand to the present day; the second, Revealed/Concealed, focuses on his works that critique the site of art through architectural interventions.

See also

• Conceptual art

• Pop art