Our Friend Billy Childish

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Part 1: Drawings from “the tea huts of hell” - a beginning - the refusenik begins

In 1976, having been refused entry to the Medway College of Design due to lack of formal qualifications, Billy Childish worked for six months as an apprentice stone mason at H.M. Dockyard, Chatham. During this period he produced some 600 drawings in “the tea-huts of hell” which gained him entry to St Martin’s School in 1977, but he didn’t go. We’ll be showing a selection of these drawings in this exhibition along with an expanded limited edition catalogue.

Part 2: Poetry Zines, Punk Collages and Kurt Schwitters - refusing to paint in art school

In 1979 Childish was forced off the dole by the election of Margaret Thatcher, was once again admitted to St Martin’s, but was expelled the following year for publishing what was described as an “obscene” collection of poetry and refusing to paint a single painting in art school. His creative output however was unhindered as he continued to paint at home and a huge number of collages, hand made books and poetry zines were produced during this period. We’ll be showing a selection of these “Chatham Mertz”, producing a limited edition catalogue and will release a short film about Kurt Schwitters called “The Man with Wheels” made by Billy and his friend Eugene Doyne in 1980.

Mertz in Chatham

In 1977, after leaving the dockyard in Chatham, I made a couple of hundred collages, painted up an old suite and shirt, in what I imagined were ‘Mertz‘ style images, walked into St Martins School of Art and was accepted onto the painting course for 1978. Naturally, I only lasted half a term later due to their lack of a sense of humour and morbid obsession with abstract expressionism.

Back in Chatham I opened a bank account under the name of Kurt Schwitters, had a short poem of his tattooedon my left buttock ‘I don’t bother with ideal I eat the apple with the peel’ and travelled to play in Kurt’s home town of Hanover, with the punk group I was in The Pop Rivets. 2 years later I re-applied to the painting course at
St Martins, because Thatcher - milk snatcher - was hot on my tail. Like fools they had me back and again I was lost. Then round the corner I noticed that the Marlborough Galleries were planning a show of Kurt’s stuff. In the meantime I’d written a booklet of poems celebrating Kurt’s life, titled The Man with Wheels. I went in and asked if I could sell it at the show.

“Have you got permission to print these poems,” the owner asked me aggressively.
“They are my poems!” I told him.
He looked at me dubiously,
“You will have to ask Ernst Schwitters.(Kurt’s son) He’ll be here on Friday.”
“I can’t, I’m off to play real rock n roll music in Hamburg.”
“Well I can’t authorise it, it’s up to Ernst.“
“Can my girlfriend bring the books in and show him?”
“Yes, I can’t see any reason why not.”
“At what time?”
“6.30 should be fine.”
“Friday at 6.30, she’ll be here!”
So I went off playing in the Grosse Freiheit and Sheila nipped round to see Ernst. Saturday I called home to see how it went with the meeting.
“Ernst was really nice, he was in a wheel chair, so he laughed at the title. He read the poems and said it would be a pleasure sell the booklet and to send his kind regards to Mister Childish."
”Good old Ernst, I new he wouldn’t be a stuffed shirt!

Yes, Kurt Schwitters entered my life and like all my good heroes, saved me. All my favourite artist are friends who speak to me across the years, advising me to stay true to my heart and ignore fashion and the pretenders. I look at Kurt’s collages with its pretty colours they say ‘Be brave, be true. Everything matters and nothing matters. Oh yes, and don’t forget to laugh as well.’

As my booklet only cost a couple of quid it out sold the official gallery catalogue ten to one, and they paid up at the end of the show in hard cash. With no grant and a couple of months away from being expelled from St Martins, that was sweet. Yes, sweet Kurt Schwitters and his sweet collages, and remember: eat the apple with the peel!

A Note About the Frames.

The frames for the paintings in this exhibition have been specially designed by the artist and made out of skirting board by the aquarium. They're all hand painted in cream household paint with a satin finish.

Part 3: Insolence in the Face of Art - bad painting and refusing to “fulfill his fucking potential”.

“Back in the 1990’s when all the Brit Art rebels were sucking up to Saatchi and Thatcher, I decided to remain on the wrong end of the seasaw and paint like a monkey. Thus being brilliant whilst continuing to annoy the big boys” - Billy Childish.

A selection of these great paintings will be exhibited and a limited edition catalogue will be produced as well as a series of prints.

Part 4: Kitchen Paintings - sexual still lives, flowers, good things for people’s kitchens and refusing to be clever “I thought I’d paint something nice that people might actually like because ‘real’ artists just don’t do that” says Childish.

These pictures were made specially for this exhibition. They are not painted for large galleries, corporate spaces or an art audience. They’re for people and where they live. These will also be priced so people can buy them and, besides a limited edition catalogue, an affordable series of prints will be made so even school children can have a copy.

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