The William N. Copley Estate is pleased to announce the opening of AUTOEROTICISM: Paintings from 1984 and related works, an exhibition of works by William N. Copley now on view at Galerie Max Hetzler, Paris, 46 & 57, rue du Temple, through April 15.
The works Copley created in 1984 play a game of multiple pictorial dimensions, employing oval and silhouetted formats to expand a visual language that he first developed in the 1950s while living and working in the Paris suburb of Longpont-sur-Orge. In the paintings and drawings of AUTOEROTICISM, Copley isolates the automobile and other figural forms as a frame for multilayered compositions, painting pictures within pictures.
An excerpt from the gallery’s press release:
“For this series of works created in the 1980s, Copley revisited the compositions, motifs and themes of an earlier repertoire initiated in 1955, reflecting the signifiers of Paris at that time: street scenes, cafés, Wallace fountains, couples, prostitutes, the French flag, and classical imagery through quotations from modern French art. 1984 was a decisive period in his work, as Copley (then working in Key West, Florida) started combining the raw canvas with popular imagery related to the automobile, playing with the romantic notion of the Sunday drive leading to idyllic and bucolic spots. For Copley, the car was a place of safety and freedom, a protective womb in which fantasies could unfold directly from the subconscious. As he explained in 1983, ‘It’s always been the most important image that I’ve ever had simply because to me, the car is the stationary center of the universe. You’re stationary, and the world is moving around you – over you, under you, around you. […] I find I could say more with that image than almost anything I’ve tried.’ 2 Many of the works feature an oval-shaped form that seems to double as a wing-mirror, evoking a Renaissance tondo. Copley saw the automobile as an egg, with its interior exposed – a place of protection and transgression. This progresses into cut-outs and profiled silhouettes, inviting the viewer to cast an indiscreet eye into Copley’s autoeroticism.”
For more information, a checklist of works and installation images, please visit the gallery’s website here: