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PUBLISHER
Paul Kasmin Gallery

BOOK FORMAT
Hardcover, 10.75 x 10.75 in. / 140 pgs / 38 color / 8 bw.

PUBLISHING STATUS
Pub Date
Out of print

DISTRIBUTION
D.A.P. Exclusive
Catalog: SPRING 2011 p. 80   

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9780982943311 TRADE
List Price: $65.00 CAD $75.00

AVAILABILITY
Not available

TERRITORY
WORLD

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PAUL KASMIN GALLERY

William N. Copley: Cply X-Rated


William N. Copley: Cply X-RatedPainter, gallerist, writer and collector William N. Copley (1919-1996) was one of Surrealism's most active advocates in America (especially in Los Angeles), and his paintings are increasingly recognized as important precursors to Pop. A close friend to Duchamp and Man Ray, Copley always courted controversy, never more memorably than with his infamous X-Rated exhibition at the New York Cultural Center in 1974. Copley's cartoonish works of the 1950s developed an overtly sexual iconography in the 1960s, which in turn prefigured his erotic and arguably pornographic work of the 1970s. Published on the occasion of Paul Kasmin Gallery's reconstruction of the 1974 show, the book includes 38 superb color plates of the paintings--many of which have not been seen since the original exhibition--as well as Copley's fascinating 1977 memoir of his early years as an exponent and gallerist for Surrealism, "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dealer."

Featured image is Rape of Lucretia (1972), reproduced from William N. Copley: CPLY X-Rated.

William N. Copley: Cply X-Rated

STATUS: Out of print | 00/00/00

For assistance locating a copy, please see our list of recommended out of print specialists

FROM THE BOOK
"The 'X-Rated' pictures are loosely, even crudely, rendered images of couples and trios engaged in sex, their contorted bodies and attenuated limbs tangled together in bold arrangements of interlocking, almost abstract forms. The subjects’ languid carnality, Buddha-like smiles, and insistent individuality are frankly erotic. The colors—vibrant pastels, rich, off greens, browns, and yellows, midnight blues and brooding purples—are sensational… A Surrealist disjunctiveness is manifested in the names of the paintings, many of which are slyly titled after Hollywood films… Sui generic, CPLY was neither truly a Surrealist nor a Pop artist. He exploited decoration, humor, and sentiment long before artists such as Joe Brainard or Ree Morton; he celebrated the male gaze at the height of the women’s liberation movement, and he pursued the Rococo in the heyday of Minimalism… Always incorrect and gleefully so, CPLY always got it right."

Anne Doran, excerpted from William N. Copley: CPLY X-Rated.

WILLIAM N. COPLEY MONOGRAPHS + ARTIST'S BOOKS

William N. Copley: Selected Writings

WILLIAM N. COPLEY: SELECTED WRITINGS

Walther König, Köln

ISBN: 9783960987765
USD $29.95
| CAD $41.95

Pub Date: 8/18/2020
Active | In stock


William N. Copley: Reflection on a Past Life

WILLIAM N. COPLEY: REFLECTION ON A PAST LIFE

Walther König, Köln

ISBN: 9783863354589
USD $22.00
| CAD $30.5

Pub Date: 9/30/2014
Active | In stock


William N. Copley: Women

WILLIAM N. COPLEY: WOMEN

Kasmin

ISBN: 9780996813457
USD $45.00
| CAD $60

Pub Date: 11/20/2018
Active | In stock