William N. Copley
(American, 1919–1996)
Biography
William N. Copley was an American artist known for his erotic and humorous paintings of faceless figures. Also a collector, writer, and gallerist, his space Copley Galleries exhibited Surrealist works by René Magritte, Marcel Duchamp, and Max Ernst in postwar Los Angeles. “I thought that by painting I could sharpen my visual perception and be able to transmit that into my writing,” he once explained. “And once I got started painting I never returned to writing really except for a brief period of journalism.” Born on January 24, 1919 in New York, NY, he was adopted by Ira C. Copley in 1921 and grew up in Aurora, IL. The artist went on to study at Phillips Academy Andover and Yale University before being drafted in the army. Returning home, he worked as a reporter for his father’s newspaper in Los Angeles, where he met his wife Marjorie Doris Wead. It was his wife’s sister’s husband, John Ployardt, with whom Copley eventually started a gallery. After the short-lived gallery went under, he moved to Paris to pursue his painting career, influenced and encouraged by his friends Duchamp and Ernst. Through the following decades, Copley explored romantic relationships and sexuality through his X-rated work, merging a humorous American Pop Art sensibility with his Surrealist roots. The artist died on May 7, 1996 in Key West, FL. Today, his works are included in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among others.
William N. Copley Artworks
William N. Copley
(670 results)
English (US)
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