William Nelson Copley’s pioneering body of work is defined by humorous, erotic, and political figurative paintings that explore themes of fantasy, morality, and the inner realm of self and experience. A self-taught artist, and gleefully impervious to dominant trends in art, Copley engendered a singular style over the course of five decades, assembling a unique lexicon of poetic imagery rendered in vivid colors and flattened pictorial space. Employing a distinctive use of line, Copley developed an idiosyncratic visual language incorporating curvilinear figures and recurring motifs, drawing on his fascinations and obsessions. Working under the moniker “CPLY,” which Copley used as his signature, the artist also created numerous drawings, collages, sculptural objects, prints, artist’s books and multiples. ...
