William Nelson Copley

Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York
Private Collection, New York
Adam Baumgold Gallery, New York
Acquired by the present owner from the above

William Nelson Copley is associated historically with the Surrealists as a collector and – briefly – as a dealer in their work. As a painter, his relationship is more subtle; he specifically asserted in an interview, "I never wanted to present myself as a formal Surrealist...I've never wanted to be anything more than just a painter" (Oral History interview with Willam Copley, January 30, 1968, quoted by Stephen Berg in "The Empty-Chambered Revolver," William N. Copley, Among Ourselves, Stuttgart, 2009, p.11). However, his paintings are charged with eroticism: fetishistic, obsessive and augmented with ambiguous annotations, these are all strategies of the Surrealists whose paintings he collected, which loops him back into the movement. On the other hand, because of the period during which he painted, his cartoon-like forms and his use of text, his works also resemble the early Pop artists and belong very much in this movement also.