Artist continues to amaze us with his inventiveness
As an artist whose life and art culminates in registering his name as a trademark, Billy Apple's retrospective exhibition at Auckland Art Gallery shows a total concentration on self. Apple was Apple before the computer company. He was born in New Zealand, went to England, and subsequently changed his name. He gained fame in London and New York during the Pop Art scene in the 60s and returned to New Zealand in the 1980s.
It is all about him. In the foyer are objects of his admiration: functional pieces of design from his personal collection of racing cars and classic motor cycles, modern objects of great beauty.
The first works visitors will see are photographs documenting in detail his early life. It reflects his belief that everything he did was art, even shaving or sweeping the floor. Later he morphed into an art philosopher in the tradition of Marcel Duchamp. He became an ideas man. Almost nothing in the show is actually made by him.
Just inside the entrance is documentation of two moments on his personal road to Damascus. First, when he changed the colour of his hair and his name to his present persona. Second, when he saw a barber in Alicante giving a client a wet shave he realised many people had skills he did not possess but whom he could use in the realisation of his radical propositions. He was part of the birth of Conceptual Art.
Art Declared Found Activity (Lathering, Alicante, Spain), 1960 courtesy of Mayor Gallery. Photo / Supplied
This is followed by a series of photographs recording his ritual sweeping of his studio and exhibition space in New York. The first painting is a bold early Apple image that was his contribution to American Supermarket, a show which launched many big names in modern American art. It is two large apples, red and green, and a space to put money. His preoccupation with the transactions of art arrived early. The red and green are like the port and starboard lights of a ship going forward and are constants in his work.
One piece of evidence refers to the outrageous work that provoked the police to close down his exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery in London: documentation of his nose-bleed, ear wax and semen alongside a photograph of him taking down the forbidden show.
Much more lively works are variations of a trio of apples cast in bronze and enamelled in bright colours. This is called 2 Minutes 33 Seconds and shows the results of Apple eating an apple: one bite, half-eaten, and the core. The title is the time taken to eat it.
Apple was one of the first to see the possibilities of neon being used to make art forms. He had craftsmen make pieces for him. The most notable, inevitably, is his signature.
After his experimental stage his increasing concern, indicated in the title of the show formed by his frequent collaborator, Wystan Curnow, was for the place of transactions in the art world.
Sold, 1981. Photo / Supplied
His exhibition Art for Sale is remembered here by Sold, a work in acrylic on canvas that sets the pattern for many that follow. The title is in large red capitals and the rest is a bill for the work signed by Billy Apple when the sale went through. The work was painted by signwriter Terry Maitland, although the lettering and layout were chosen by the artist. It became the pattern for clients who wanted a Billy Apple in their collection. Smaller works actually contained real receipts. Such paintings fill a whole room and chronicle the artist's relationship with clients and institutions. It is a remarkable display of variations within a theme.
"What is it worth?" is the perennial question asked about a piece of art. The show includes a superb answer: Billy had an apple cast in pure gold with his signature and the exact weight of the gold. The basic worth can be checked by looking up the value of gold on any given day. The gallery has a light display that shows the daily value. The preciousness of the metal and its inherent glow evokes creation, myth and legend. It thus becomes a "golden apple of the sun" transcending an art political statement.
It is not the artist's only claim to immortality. He has had some of his body cells virally transformed to live outside his body. A big video shows a swarming mass of them in constant motion. It is an intriguing video in itself but more so because the refrigerator in which the cells need to be kept is also in the room.
The culmination of his artistic innovation came in 2008. Billy Apple had his name and logo registered as a trademark and copyright. He now lends his name to many products and the last room displays the variety of things that carry his brand, notably cider.
The Golden Apple, 1983. Photo / Supplied
After all this autobiographical work and philosophical positions, what does the visitor take from the exhibition? A sense of a daring, prodigiously inventive talent and a memory of bright apples.
What: Billy Apple®: The Artist Has to Live Like Everybody Else Where and when: Auckland Art Gallery, Kitchener St, to June 21 TJ says: This retrospective charts Apple's international progress as an inventive conceptual artist with constant emphasis on the transactional nature of art and artists in society and the marketplace.
