b. 1919, New York, NY, US
d. 1996, Key West, FL, US
In Collaboration with Kasmin Gallery, New York
American artist, William N. Copley, known by his signature name CPLY, (pronounced 'see-ply'), was a painter, writer, gallerist, art patron, publisher, and art entrepreneur. In 1948, when the artist was twenty-nine, Copley opened the Copley Galleries in Beverly Hills. During its brief six-month existence, Copley and his brother-in-law, John Ployardt, mounted exhibitions by several seminal Surrealists including René Magritte, Joseph Cornell, Roberto Matta, Man Ray and Yves Tanguy, followed by the first Max Ernst retrospective exhibition in America. After closing the gallery in early 1949 and at the encouragement of Marcel Duchamp and Max Ernst, Copley focused on his career as an artist with a newfound commitment. In the succeeding decades, Copley would live in both France and New York, developing a unique painting style that brought him international recognition.
William N. Copley (1919-1996, American) is represented in private and public collections worldwide, such as the Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Stedelijk Museum and many more. Recently the subject of a comprehensive traveling retrospective organized by The Menil Collection and Fondazione Prada (2017), Copley is now seen as a singular personage of post-war painting and important linkage between European Surrealism and American Pop Art.