• Source: William Copley (artist)

William N. Copley (January 24, 1919 – May 7, 1996) also known as CPLY, was an American painter, writer, gallerist, collector, patron, publisher and art entrepreneur. His works as an artist have been classified as late Surrealist and precursory to Pop Art.




Early life and introduction to art


Copley was born in New York City in 1919 to parents John and Flora Lodwell; they died shortly after in the 1919 Spanish Flu epidemic. Copley was adopted in 1921 by Ira C. Copley, the owner of sixteen newspaper companies in Chicago and San Diego. Ira C. Copley remarried after the death of his wife, Edith, several years after the adoption took place. The three lived in Aurora, Illinois, until Copley was ten years old whereby the family moved to Coronado Island, California.
Copley was sent to Phillips Andover and then Yale University by his adopted parents. He was drafted in the Second World War in the middle of his education at Yale, a decision negotiated by the school and the army. Copley experimented with politics upon returning home from the war, working as a reporter for his father's newspaper.
By 1946, Copley met and married Marjorie Doris Wead, the daughter of a test pilot for the Navy. Doris's sister was married to John Ployardt, a Canadian-born animator and narrator at Walt Disney Studios. Copley and Ployardt soon became friends and Ployardt began introducing Copley to painting and Surrealism. The two traveled to Mexico and New York, discovering art, meeting the artists behind the works, and grasping Surrealist ideas. It was during this time that Copley and Ployardt decided to open a gallery in Los Angeles to exhibit Surrealist works.




Galleries and foundation


Copley and Ployardt tracked down Man Ray while living in Los Angeles. Ray then introduced them to Marcel Duchamp in New York City. There, Duchamp opened many doors for them, introducing the two to New York dealers in Surrealism. In 1948, Copley and Ployardt opened The Copley Galleries in Beverly Hills, displaying works by artists including René Magritte, Max Ernst, Yves Tanguy, Roberto Matta, Joseph Cornell, and Man Ray. However, Los Angeles had not yet caught on to the Surrealist scene as other locations such as New York City had done, and the Copley Galleries faced hardships in gaining popularity and sales. Copley painted part-time during the gallery's running from the encouragement of friends Duchamp and Ernst and worked on painting full-time when the gallery closed after its first year.
Copley moved to Paris in 1949–50, leaving behind his wife and two children to continue to paint. During his time in Paris, he remained in Surrealist circles and continued to paint with a uniquely American style. Man Ray introduced him to Noma Rathner, whom he married in 1954. Man Ray took numerous portraits of the Copleys and served as best man at their wedding in Paris. Their home in Longpont-sur-Orge in the outskirts of Paris became a central gathering place in the postwar era for a community of Surrealists to reunite after their dispersal during the war.
The Copleys developed the William and Noma Copley Foundation, later known as the Cassandra Collection, in 1953 with the funds from his father's inheritance. The board, in which Marcel Duchamp was also an adviser, gave small grants to artists and musicians. Upon Duchamp's death in 1968, the William and Noma Copley Foundation (later the Cassandra Foundation) gave Marcel Duchamp's last work, "Etant Donnés" to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where it is still on view.




= Collecting

=
From the time of the Copley Galleries until his death, Copley amassed a large collection of artworks with an emphasis on Surrealist works. The basis of his collection started when he began purchasing works that did not sell at the Copley Galleries. From there, he amassed monumental works including Man Ray's "A l'Heure de l'Observatoire – Les Amoureux." Copley's collection was sold at auction in 1979 for $6.7 million, at the time the highest total for the auction of a single owner's collection in the United States.




Artwork and exhibitions


Copley's first exhibition took place in Los Angeles in 1951 at Royer's Book Shop. From there Copley participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions worldwide. In 1961, Copley was given an exhibition in Amsterdam by the Stedelijk Museum. The museum became the first public institution to add a Copley to their collection.
Copley's paintings throughout the 1950s and 60s dealt with ironic and humorous images of stereotypical American symbols like the Western saloon, cowboys, and pin-up girls combined with flags. His works during this period were often considered a combination of American and Mexican folk art and melded in well with the new young POP movement occurring in America when he returned to New York in the 1960s. Artists like Andy Warhol, Christo, Roy Lichtenstein and many others were frequent visitors at Copley's studio on Lower Broadway. Copley believed that pop art had always interested him, claiming American pop art had much to do with "self-disgust" and "satire."




= The Letter Edged in Black Press (SMS)

=
In 1967, after a divorce with his second wife, Noma, Copley and new friend Dmitri Petrov decided to publish portfolios of 20th-century artist collaborations with the abbreviation SMS (for "Shit Must Stop"). Copley's Upper West Side loft became a meeting place for performers, artists, curators, and composers to work together on the open-ended collective. The SMS portfolio contained six volumes, each of which were shipped out from the artists to subscribers. The works included came from artists both well-renowned and obscure, including Marcel Duchamp, Roy Lichtenstein, Man Ray, Christo, Richard Hamilton, Claes Oldenburg, John Cage, Terry Riley, La Monte Young, Dick Higgins, Ronnie Landfield, Bruce Nauman, Meret Oppenheim, Neil Jenney, Yoko Ono and others.




= CPLY X-Rated

=
Copley's works in the 1970s focused on his own understating of differences and challenges between men and women in romantic and sexual relationships. His works were now erotic, even pornographic. In 1974 he exhibited these new works at what was then the New York Cultural Center in Columbus Circle, New York in a show titled "CPLY X-Rated." These pieces were a sudden change from his previous romantic whimsical periods. The American public had difficulty with the material, for which Copley expressed, "Americans... don't know the difference between eroticism and pornography. Because eroticism has always existed in art. And pornography has never necessarily been in art." Copley's experienced greater feedback in Europe, where the work was then well received. In conjunction with the New York Cultural Center Show, there was a special "CPLY X-Rated Poster and Catalog.




Later years


Copley moved to Roxbury, Connecticut in 1980, where he built a studio and spent time among friends. In 1992 he moved full-time to Key West, Florida, due to health issues and lived with his sixth and final wife, Cynthia Gooch. He died on May 7, 1996, at age 77 from complications from a stroke he had suffered three weeks earlier.
Mr. Copley's first five marriages ended in divorce. He had a son and two daughters. His daughter, Claire S. Copley, founded the short-lived, but influential Claire Copley Gallery, which exhibited important works by Michael Asher and Bas Jan Ader.




Selected solo exhibitions


2022 "Works on Paper", Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
2022 Sadie Coles HQ, London
2020 "The Ballad of William N. Copley", Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
2020 "The New York Years", Kasmin, New York
2020 "William N. Copley: The Temptation of St. Anthony (Revisited)", Nino Mier, Los Angeles
2020 "William N. Copley: Drawings and Paintings 1966–1991", Nino Mier, Los Angeles
2018 "William N. Copley: The Coffin They Carry You Off In", Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), Miami
2018 "Publishing the Portable Museum: William N. Copley’s The Letter Edged in Black Press", Alden Projects, New York
2017 "William N. Copley: Women", Kasmin Gallery, New York (catalogue)
2016 "William N. Copley: The World According to CPLY", The Menil Collection, Houston (travelled to Fondazione Prada, Milan)
2016 "The World According to CPLY", The Menil Collection, Houston
2015 Galerie 1900-2000, Paris
2015 "William N. Copley: Drawings (1962 – 1973)", Kasmin Gallery, New York
2015 "William N. Copley: Paintings from 1960 – 1994", Showroom by Paul van Esch & Partners Art Advisory, Amsterdam
2014 "William N. Copley: Paintings and Mirrors", Michael Fuchs Galerie, Berlin
2013 "Finally We Laugh", Galerie Linn Lühn, Düsseldorf (catalogue)
2013 "William Copley & Big Fat Black Cock", Inc. Gang Bust, Venus Over Manhattan, New York (catalogue)
2012 "Patriotism of CPLY and All That", Kasmin Gallery, New York
2012 "William N. Copley: Works 1948 – 1983", Galerie Von Braunbehrens, Munich (catalogue)
2012 Museum Frieder Burda, Baden Baden
2011 "X-Rated," Sadie Coles HQ, London
2010 "CPLY: X-Rated," Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York
2004 Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain
1980–81 Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe, Germany
Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands (traveling retrospective)
Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
Kunsthalle Bern
1979 "CPLY: Reflections on a Past Life," Institute of the Arts, Rice University, Houston
1974 "CPLY/X-RATED," New York Cultural Center, New York




Selected group exhibitions






= 1953

=
Americans in Paris, Galerie Arthur Craven, Paris, France




= 1956

=
XII Salon de Mai, Musee D’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France
Exposition Internationale de l’Art Actuel, Nagaoka Museum, Nagoaka, Japan




= 1957

=
Verzameling Urvater, (Urvater Collection), Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, Otterlo, Netherlands; The Museum and Art Gallery, Leicester, England; City of York Gallery, York, England; The Tate Gallery, London, England
Picture Fair, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, England




= 1959

=
XV Salon de Mai, Musée D’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France
Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme, Galerie Daniel Cordier, Paris, France
The Maremont Collection at the Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology at Crown Hall, Chicago
Picture Fair, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, England




= 1960

=
International Surrealist Exhibition, D’arcy Galleries, New York




= 1961

=
XVII Salon de Mai, Musée D’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France
Bewogen Bewgin (Moving Movement), Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam Holland; Rörelse I Konsten (Object in Motion) Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden; Bevagelse i kunsten (Movement in Art), Louisiana Museum, Humlbaek, Denmark
Contemporary Modern Paintings Drawings Collages Objets-Peinture Sculpture Property of The American Chess Foundation, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York
Sculpture and Picture Fair, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, England
Surréalisme Et Précurseurs, Palais Graneville, Besançon, France




= 1962

=
Collage out of California, Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena
Antagonismes 2: L’Objet, Musée D’Art Decoratifs, Palais du Louvre – Pavillon de Marsan, Pavillon de Marsan, Paris, France
Surrealismus: Phantastiche Maleri der Gegenwart, Künstlerhaus, Vienna, Austria
XVIII Salon de Mai, Musée D’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France
Esther-Robles Gallery, Los Angeles
Picture Fair, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, England
Piccola Biennale, Palazzo Papadopoli, Venice, Italy




= 1963

=
Pop Art USA, Oakland Museum of Art, Oakland, California
XIX Salon de Mai, Musée D’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France
18 Salon de Réalitiés Nouvelles, Musée Municipal D’Art Moderne, Paris, France
Paris Lettriste, Galerie Schmidt, Paris, France
Aspetti dell’Arte Contemporanea, L’Aquila Castello Cinquecentesco, L’Aquila, Italy
Surrealist Exhibition, Galerie Carpenter, Paris, France; New York




= 1964

=
Arte Fantastica, Museo de Castillo di San Giusto, Trieste, Italy
Selections from the L.M. Asher Collection, University Art Gallery, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
New Directions in American Painting, Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham
Nieuwe Realisten, Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, Netherlands
Le Surrealisme: Sources, Histoire, Affinities, Galerie Charpentier, Paris, France
Around Travel, P.V.I. Gallery, New York
May Twelfth Twelve Artists, Alexander Iolas Gallery, New York
100 American Drawings, Byron Gallery, New York




= 1965

=
The Maremont Collection, Washington Gallery of Modern Art, Washington, D.C.
Pop Art, Nouveau Réalisme, Etc., Palais Des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Belgium
Surrealist Exhibition, Byron Gallery, New York
Visiting Artists at the Tamarind Lithography Workshop, Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles
Arena of Love, Dwan Gallery, Los Angeles
Whence Pop, Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, New York
The Box Show, Byron Gallery, New York
Exquisite Torsi, David Stuart Galleries, Los Angeles
Drawings, Alexander Iolas Gallery, New York
Recent Acquisitions of Painting and Sculpture, Museum of Modern Art, New York




= 1966

=
Hommage á Caissa: Exhibition for the Chess Foundation of the Duchamp Fund, Cordier & Ekstrom Gallery, New York
Dada Lever, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
Surrealist Exhibition, University of California, Santa Barbara
Portraits: Peinture, Galerie Claude Bernard, Paris, France
25 Years of Art in San Diego, La Jolla Museum of Art, La Jolla, California
Birthday Party for George Washington, Henri Gallery, Alexandria, Virginia
26th Annual Exhibition by the Society for Contemporary American Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
Limited Works by Important Artists, The Egg and The Eye, Los Angeles
Around the Automobile, Museum of Modern Art, New York; Arlington State College, Arlington; Cedar Rapids Art Center, Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire; B. Caroll Reece Memorial Museum, Johnson City, Tennessee; Bates College, Lewiston, Maine; Davison Art Center at Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut; Brooks Memorial Art Gallery, Memphis, Tennessee; The Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan




= 1967

=
Mixed Masters, University of St. Thomas, Houston
Angry Arts: Artists and Writers Protest Against the War in Vietnam, Associated American Artists, New York
Fifty American Artists of the Twentieth Century, North Shore Community Arts Center, Great Neck, New York
27th Annual Exhibition by the Society for Contemporary American Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago




= 1968

=
The Obsessive Image, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, England
Dada, Surrealism, and Their Heritage, Museum of Modern Art, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
Language II, Dwan Gallery, New York




= 1969

=
Blocked Metaphors, Cordier & Ekstrom Gallery, New York




= 1970

=
Recent Acquisitions of Painting and Sculpture, Museum of Modern Art, New York
Copley, Brauner and Magritte, Louisianna Gallery, Houston
Box Top Art, Illinois State University, Bloomington




= 1972

=
Documenta 5, Kassel, Germany




= 1973

=
Erotic Art, The Art Center of the New School for Social Research, New York




= 1974

=
Seventy-First American Exhibition, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago




= 1975

=
Three Generations of the American Nude, New York Cultural Center, New York
University of Houston/Fine Art Center, Houston




= 1976

=
The William Seitz Memorial Exhibition, Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton




= 1977

=
Artist’s Renderings of Paintings, Pinoetca di Brera, Milan, Italy; Musée du Louvre, Paris France
The Dada / Surrealist Heritage, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts




= 1978

=
“Bad” Painting, The New Museum, New York
American Nude, Harold Reed Gallery, New York
Box Museum, Cooper Hewitt Museum, New York




= 1980

=
American Painting of the Sixties and Seventies: The Real, The Ideal, and the Fantastic, Whitney Museum of Art, New York; Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, Alabama; Joslyn Art Museum; Omaha; Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida; Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio; Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado Springs; The Sierra Nevada Museum of Art, Reno
The Figurative Tradition and the Whitney Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of Art, New York




= 1981

=
Westkunst, Museen Der Stadt Köln, Cologne, Germany




= 1982

=
Documenta 7, Kassel, Germany
The Erotic Impulse, Roger Litz Gallery, New York




= 1983

=
Looking at Women, Artemisia Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
Festival of the Arts, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pennsylvania
Contemporary Paintings from the Weatherspoon Art Gallery, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, North Carolina
The Last Laugh, Southern Ohio Museum and Cultural Center, Portsmouth, Ohio




= 1984

=
Auto and Culture, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit
Paravents, Schloss Lorsfeld, Kerpen, Germany




= 1985 – 1986

=
Cinquante Ans de Dessins Americans: 1930-1980, Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts, Paris, France; Städtische Galerie im Stadelschen Kunstinstitut; Frankfurt, Germany




= 1986

=
Column, Galerie Jule Kewenig, Frechen-Bachem, Germany
Europa / Amerika: die Geschicte einer kunstlerischen Faszination seit 1940, Museum Ludwig, Germany
Line Drives, Gallery 53/Smithy Artworks, Cooperstown, New York




= 1987

=
The Amused Eye: A National Sampling of Humor in Art, The Evanston Art Center, Evanston, Illinois




= 1988

=
Gran Pavese, The Flag Project, Muhka Museum Voor Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
Roger Brown, William Copley, Duncan Hannah, Gloria Luria Gallery, Miami




= 1989

=
Bilderstreit: Widerspruch, Einheit und Fragment in der Kunst seit 1960, Museum Ludwig in den Reinhallen der Kölner Messe, Cologne, Germany




= 1992

=
My Father’s House Has Many Mansions, Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York




= 1993

=
Darkness and Light: Twentieth-Century Works from Texas Collections, Blaffer Gallery, The Art Museum of Houston, Houston




= 1994

=
Old Glory: The American Flag in Contemporary Art, Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, Cleveland




= 1995

=
Bunnies – A Group Show, Nolan / Eckman Gallery, New York
Drawing the Line: Reappraising Drawings Past and Present, Southhampton City Art Gallery, Southhampton, England; Manchester City Art Gallery, Manchester, England; Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, England; Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, England




= 1996

=
A Labor of Love, The New Museum, New York
Bilder – Aquarelle – Zeichnungen, Galerie Fred Jahn, Munich, Germany
Hommage a Copley, Galerie Fred Jahn, Munich, Germany
Think, Galerie Brigitte Ihsen, Cologne, Germany
Disegni Americani degli anni ottanta: 15 artisti, Galleria Milano, Milan, Italy




= 1997

=
Magie der Zahl in der Kunst des 20, Jahrhunderts, Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, Germany




= 1998

=
Summer Group Show, Nolan / Eckman Gallery, New York
Then and Now and Later: Art at Yale Since 1945, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut
Imagined World, David Nolan Gallery, New York




= 1999

=
Bad-bad: That is a good excuse, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Baden-Baden, Germany




= 2000

=
Prints, Nolan / Eckman Gallery, New York
Im Gegenüber: Landschaften, Stilleben, Portraits, Galerie Von Braunbehrens, Munich, Germany
Sweet Dreams and Nightmares: Dada and Surrealism from the Rosalnd and Melvin Jacobs Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, Miami




= 2001

=
Kunst Sammeln I: Werke Zeitgenössischer Kunst aus den Sammlungen von Cramm, Faklckenburg, Kalkmann, Kunstverein Bad Salzdetfurth, Bodenburg, Germany
Museum Unserer Wunsche, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany




= 2003

=
Imagine: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, Miami




= 2004

=
Funny Cuts: Cartoons und Comics in der Zeitgenössische Kunst, Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, Germany
Eröffnungsausstellung Sammlung Frieder Burda, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Baden-Baden, Germany
Christmas Art Gifts, Artiscope, Brussels, Belgium
Baume, Galerie Biedermann, Munich, Germany




= 2005

=
International Zeichner, Galerie Biedermann, Munich, Germany
Bilderwechsel III: Amerikanische Maleri, Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden, Germany




= 2006

=
Die anderen Bilder, Museum Der Stadt, Ratingen, Germany
Ele-Mental, David Nolan Gallery, New York
Six Feed Under: Autopsie unseres Umgangs mit Toten, Kunstmuseum Bern, Bern, Switzerland
Models and Prototypes, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri
L’Amateur D’Estampes, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Tourcoing, France
Collage Effect, 1301PE, Los Angeles, California
Group Exhibition, David Nolan Gallery, New York




= 2007

=
Rockers Island: Olbricht Collection, Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany
Deutsche und Amerikanische Maleri, Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden, Germany
Sixties! Art, Fashion, Design Film and Photography, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, The Hague, Netherlands
Affinities, Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin, Germany




= 2008

=
Diana und Aktaion: Der Verbotene Blick auf die Nacktheit, Museum Kunst Palest, Düsseldorf, Germany
Karl Bohrmann – William N. Copley, Galerie Klauss Gerrit Friese, Stuttgart, Germany
Carte Blanche III – Gedichte der Fakten,Galerie Fur Zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig, Germany
Liebe, Love, Paare, Gustäve-Lübcke-Museum, Hamm, Germany
Museum Im Kulturspeicher, Würzburg, Germany
Ulm Museum, Ulm Germany
Mirror, Mirror, Ed Thorp Gallery, New York




= 2009

=
And Other Essays, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York
Exile On Main St., Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, Netherlands
Jr. and Son’s, Zach Feuer Gallery, New York
The Long Arm of Coincidence: Selections from the Rosalind and Melvin Jacobs Collection, Pace MacGill Gallery, New York




= 2010

=
Sixties – Seventies, Galerie 1900-2000, Paris, France
Intimacy! Bathing in Art, Kunstmuseum Ahlen, Ahlen, Germany
Permanent Trouble: Sammlung Kopp, Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany




= 2011

=
After Shelly Duval ’72 (Frogs on the High Line), Maccarone Gallery, New York
Andreas Slominski & William N. Copley – X-Rated, M.E. Collector’s Room, Berlin, Germany
ADAA Art Fair, Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York




= 2012

=
Interiors, Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York




= 2013

=
Re-View, Hauser and Wirth Gallery, London, England
Gang Bust: William N. Copley & Big Fat Black Cock. Inc, Venus Over Manhattan, New York
Masculine / Feminine, Michael Fuchs Galerie, Berlin, Germany
Building the Sukka, House of Gaga, Mexico City, Mexico




= 2014

=
Pop Abstraction, Fredericks and Fraser Gallery and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York
Purple States, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York
Live and Let Die, Modern Art, London, England
Alexander the Great: The Iolas Gallery 1955 – 1987, Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York
Art Basel Miami Beach, Sadie Coles HQ, Miami
The Surrealist Bungalow, Linn Lühn, Düsseldorf, Germany
What Nerve!: Alternative Figures in American Art, 1960 to the Present, RISD Museum, Providence




= 2015

=
The Violent Crab, David Roberts Art Foundation, London, England
L’Impasse Ronsin, ADAA Art Fair, Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York
Viewer Discretion: Children of Bataille, Stux & Haller Gallery, New York
The Shadow is Taken, Algus Greenspon, New York
Saul Steinberg and William Copley: Take on the Life, Galerie Klauss Gerrit Friese, Berlin, Germany
Painting 2.0: Expressions in the Information Age; Museum Brandhorst, Munich, Germany; Mumok Museum, Vienna, Switzerland




= 2016

=
William Copley, Elma Talbot, Ina van Zyl, Galerie Onrust, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Olympia, Karma at Galerie Patrick Seguin, Paris, France
William N. Copley and His Mentor, Magritte, VENUS at FIAC, Gran Palais, Paris, France
The Revolutionary Sucide Mechanized Band, Rob Tufnell Gallery, Cologne, Germany
Impasse Ronsin, Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York




= 2017

=
Animal Farm, The Brant Foundation, Greenwich, Connecticut
Hope and Hazard: A Comedy of Eros, Hall Art Foundation, Reading, Vermont
Itinéraires, Musée D’Arts de Nantes, Nantes, France
Schlaf: Eine produktive Zeitverschwendung, Museen Böttcherstrasse, Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum, Bremen, Germany
An Incomplete History of Protest: Selections from the Whitney’s Collection, 1940 – 2017, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
America! America! How real is real?, Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden, Germany




= 2018

=
Kinder Gentler Nation, Karma, New York
Mr. Natural; And Other Works from the Allan Frumkin Gallery (1952 – 1987), VENUS, New York
Nudes, Sadie Coles, London, England
Atlas, Fondazione Prada, Milan, Italy
Remember to React: 60 Years of Collecting, NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Trance, Aïshti Foundation, Jal El Dib, Lebanon
París pese a todo: Artistas extranheros, 1944-1968 (Lost, Loose and Loved: Foreign Artists in Paris, 1944 – 1968), Museo Nacional Centro de Arta Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain




= 2019

=
Fringe: William N. Copley, Jenny Watson & Saskia Pintelon, Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle, Belgium
Recline: Portraiture & Henri Matisse Prints, McClain Gallery, Houston, Texas




= 2020

=
Valley of Gold: Southern California and the Phantasmagoric, Kasmin, New York
Karel Appel, André Butzler, William N. Copley, Ida Ekblad, Jeff Elrod, Walton Ford, Tursic & Mille, Galerie Max Hetzler, London, England
Helmut Newton 100 / William N. Copley 101 / Jonathan Monk 51, Galerie Klaus Gerrit Friese, Berlin, Germany
Impasse Ronsin. Murder, Love, and Art in the Heart of Paris, Museum Tinguely, Basel, Switzerland




= 2023

=
SEE YOURSELF AS LOVERS SEE YOU: William N. Copley | Dorothy Iannone, Sammlung Philara, Düsseldorf
The Curatorial Imagination of Walter Hopps, The Menil Collection, Houston, Texas
Pictures Girls Make: Portraitures, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles




= 2023–2024

=
Paraventi: Folding Screens from the 17th to 21st Centuries, Fondazione Prada, Milan
2024
Americans in Paris: Artists working in Postwar France, 1946–1962, The Grey Art Museum, New York University, New York




Selected press


Sam, Sherman, "Critics' Pics: William N. Copley at Sadie Coles HQ," Artforum, August 2011.
Laster, Paul, "William N. Copley, 'X-Rated'," Time Out, 12/03/13.
Smith, Roberta, "Playing the Renegade With Eroticism or Rage," The New York Times, 11/11/10.




Museum and public collections


Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau
Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa
Centre Pompidou, Paris
Denver Art Museum, Denver
Destina Foundation, New York
Falckenberg Collection, Hamburg
Fondazione Prada, Milan
Goetz Collection, Munich
International Centre Of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana
Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Lenbachhaus, Munich
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles
Maremont Collection, Chicago
Menil Collection, Houston
Moderna Museet, Stockholm
Musée d'art moderne et contemporain, Geneva
Musée d'art moderne et contemporain, Saint-Etienne
Musée de l'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Chicago
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Los Angeles
Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, Miami
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Museum Ludwig, Cologne
Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna
Museum Ulm, Ulm
Nagaoka Contemporary Art Museum, Nagaoka
Newport Harbour Museum, Newport
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia
Philara Collection, Düsseldorf
Power Institute of Fine Arts, Sydney
Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton
Städel Museum, Frankfurt
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
Tate Collection, London
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York




Notes

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• Frederic Crowninshield
• Teen Choice Awards 2010
• William Copley (artist)
• William Copley
• Copley (surname)
• John Singleton Copley
• Paul Copley
• Noma Copley
• Thaw
• Copley Fielding
• Portrait of Lord Mansfield
• The Death of the Earl of Chatham