Adopted by a newspaper magnate, William N. Copley grew up surrounded by language, image, and satire. Elements that would later define his art. After studying at Yale University and serving in the U.S. Army from 1941 to 1945, he returned to California, where he began to paint while working for his family’s newspaper. In the late 1940s, Copley co-founded the short-lived Copley Galleries in Beverly Hills, presenting works by René Magritte, Max Ernst, and Man Ray. When the gallery closed, he devoted himself to painting, developing a visual language that blends humour, eroticism, and the contradictions of American culture.

Copley’s paintings are distinguished by bold outlines and cartoon-like forms, often depicting nude female figures entangled in scenes of domestic life, play, or desire. By transforming familiar motifs, such as flags, beds and umbrellas into surreal allegories, his work resists simple categorisation, existing between Pop Art and Surrealism, irony and sincerity. In 1954, together with his second wife Noma, he established the William and Noma Copley Foundation, which supported avant-garde artists and experimental publications, with Marcel Duchamp among its advisors.

Copley lived and worked between Paris, New York, Roxbury, and Key West, cultivating a deeply personal, as well as imaginative body of work that continues to resonate for its wit and unmistakable individuality.

Text by Elisa Juls