William N. Copley

New York City

William Copley was one of the great heroes of postwar art in America, running a gallery in Los Angeles, collecting work by European Surrealists and giving artist grants. He even donated Marcel Duchamp’s last piece, the mysterious installation Étant donnés, to the Philadelphia Museum. For his current exhibition The Patriotism of CPLY and All That at Paul Kasmin Gallery, he references the historic exhibition by the same title at Iolas Gallery in 1976. It features Copley’s Patriotic works that are emblematic of the social satire and political humor found throughout the artist’s oeuvre.

In the paintings on view, which span over a quarter century of CPLY’s career, the artist marshals the visual language of American patriotism to create riotous works full of wit and colorful pomp. A field of stars and stripes vignette a comely reclining nude, the Washington Monument becomes a bathroom stall tableau for CPLY’s own symbolic scrawls, firecrackers and unlit matches embrace in a kiss.

William N. Copley

Paul Kasmin Gallery

October 18th – November 21st, 2012
515 West 27th Street
New York, NY 10001
USA

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