William Nelson Copley - Artists

William Nelson Copley (1919-1996)

William N. Copley's art was based on the traditions of Dada* and Surrealism* as well as American Pop Art*. Copley studied at the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, from 1932 to 1936 and at Yale University from 1936 to 1938. After returning from war in 1947, Copley opened his own gallery in Los Angeles at the age of twenty eight. He managed to attract the main protagonists of Surrealism to his exhibitions, including the European artists René Magritte, Max Ernst, Yves Tanguy and Roberto Matta and the Americans Joseph Cornell and Man Ray.?

William Copley did not begin painting himself until the late 1940s. In 1951 he went to Paris with Man Ray, where he lived in Surrealist* circles for around thirteen years. During these years, the artist painted numerous humorous and ironic pictures dealing with the Surrealist traditions. In France his art flowered. A decidedly American sensibility cross-pollinated with an uncanny innocent deployment of French decorative patterning that his fellow Surrealists quite adored. CPLY became a painter who had so much of the instinct of a Chaplin or Buster Keaton or characters out of our comic strips, that by way of his art, a particular American flavor became part of the late Surrealist menu. In 1980 Copley moved to Roxbury, Connecticut, followed by a further move to Key West, Florida, in 1992.

CPLY's return to America around 1962 just happened to coincide with the emergence of Pop Art. Much to his surprise and to the delight of his many admirers, CPLY could now be seen as a very real and crucial link between classical Surrealist art and the new American Pop art.

Copley is regarded as a late Surrealist and precursor of Pop Art. His work was widely recognised even during his life-time. His first solo exhibition took place in Los Angeles in 1951, followed by further exhibitions in New York, Paris, Milan, Venice and London. In 1961 the Amsterdam 'Stedelijk Museum' bought the first Copley painting for a public collection. In 1968 an exhibition at the Berlin 'Galerie Springer' made him known in Germany. The extent of his recognition in Germany was reflected by invitations to Documenta 5 and 7 in 1972 and 1982. In 1980 a traveling exhibition visiting Berne, Paris, Amsterdam and Karlsrughe was very successful. Most recently, his works have been shown in solo exhibitions at the 'Kestner Gesellschaft' in Hanover (1995), at the 'Galerie Fred Jahn' in Munich (1996-1997 and at the 'Ulmer Museum' in 1997.

Copley (CPLY) is known for his witty, slightly titillating subjects and a colorful decorative style. Drawing on a humorous visual vocabulary of images that most often include a herringbone-suited man in a bowler hat; an umbrella, and a bevy

of naked women, he created saucy little narratives. These characters occupy interiors, such as boudoirs, bathrooms (complete with bidets), and the backseats of cars. Collage* and collage-like patterns of lace, checkered tile, striped or floral wallpaper, wood grain and flags, serve to underscore the erotic activities of these cartoonish characters. Copley surmised that " . . the kind of humor I like, (is) bumbling W.C. Fields humor and the eroticism is also bumbling. I maintain that when it comes to sex, everyone is a bumbler. That's what makes sex so much fun: since nobody really understands it, the possibilities for originality are endless."

In his work, he combined a unique sense of irony with a joyousness of living in his paintings. He explained, "My life is a quest for the ridiculous image. The visual pun is the golden nugget that we seek." Copley's work has been collected and shown by eleven museums throughout Europe and by numerous artists/collectors including the surrealists he so admired such as Max Ernst and Roberto Matta. Twenty books have been written about him in five languages.

More than forty years ago CPLY began his art in Los Angeles. By blind instinct or uncommon sense, he was born artistically as a natural Surrealist. In fact, he was the last of the few genuine Surrealist artists to have emerged in America. The work emerged at a time when there were precious few serious collectors for interesting new art of any persuasion; and worse, this work would have been an affront to any of the heavy-breathing intellectuals and critics who were then beginning to champion the New American Abstraction. CPLY solved this by running off to France.

The poetry of sophisticated banality and subversive narrative play had finally come to have a real and sustaining place in American culture as the 60s unfolded. CPLY had been there all along.

Bill Copley lived and passed away in the Florida Keys which he dearly loved and they loved him back!

Submitted by Nance Frank, friend of the artist

Source: Askart.com - https://www.askart.com/artist/William_Nelson_Copley/30022/William_Nelson_Copley.aspx